Kanye West’s $10M Insurance Coverage Lawsuit

The rap star and producer’s touring company took out insurance designed to pay costs if it became necessary to cancel performances. During a concert tour last year, West drew widespread attention for his increasingly erratic monologues and rants, including one in which he said he would have voted for Donald Trump. His behavior is said to have come in the wake of news that his wife, Kim Kardashian, had been tied up and robbed in a Paris hotel room. He eventually canceled the tour and checked into a hospital. The lawsuit names a number of Lloyds of London syndicates as defendants, claiming they have stalled on paying the claim and while suggesting they could deny coverage “on the unsupportable contention that use of marijuana by Kanye caused the condition.” The complaint morphs at one point into a scathing attack, saying the carriers’ behavior is “emblematic of a broader modus operadi of the insurers of never-ending post-claim underwriting where the insurers hunt for some contrived excuse not to pay.” Lloyds would not comment on the lawsuit, but it issued a general statement maintaining its reputation is built on “meeting our obligations quickly and effectively where a claim should be settled,” and noting that in the past year it paid out $18.5 billion in claims.