A dispute within one of the companies that manages the Prince estate has gone legal, putting the spotlight on disagreements between some of the late musician's family members and the two music industry executives involved in the business.
The lawsuit has been filed with the courts in Delaware by L Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer. Having advised the estate following Prince's death in 2016, both men became shareholders in the company Prince Legacy, alongside a number of the musician's heirs.
According to Law360, in their lawsuit McMillan and Spicer make allegations against Prince's half-sisters Sharon Nelson and Norrine Nelson, his niece Breanna Nelson and his nephew Allen Nelson. The Nelsons are accused of trying to improperly amend their company's operating agreement in a bid to take complete control of the business, and push McMillan and Spicer out.
However, McMillan and Spicer claim, the Nelson family members "lack any business and management experience, have no experience in the music and entertainment industries, and have no experience negotiating and managing high-level deals in the entertainment industry", and also "have a documented history of infighting".
They add that "the individual defendants' actions are contrary to the intent and express terms of the [company] agreement and prior agreements among the parties". The Nelsons, they argue, do not have the "authority or legal basis" to remove McMillan and Spicer from the company or to make any other "material changes" to their company agreement.
The lawsuit also claims that the conflict with the Nelson family members began when "unreasonable demands" made by Sharon Nelson "regarding management of the company's business" were not implemented. The Nelsons also want to change company rules regarding the sale of shares in the business, reportedly because some of the heirs involved in Prince Legacy want to sell their interests to Primary Wave.
Primary Wave is already involved in the Prince estate via a subsidiary called Prince Oat Holdings, which did a deal with other heirs who are not part of Prince Legacy. In 2022, after years of legal wrangling caused by Prince not leaving any will, a court signed off on a settlement deal which split the musician's assets between Prince Legacy and Prince Oat Holdings. Primary Wave is not involved in the new lawsuit.
