Rod Stewart ordered to pay $3m

2006-03-07 13:39

Las Vegas - A federal judge has ordered rock star Rod Stewart to pay a Las Vegas casino more than $3 million for not returning advance money he was paid before he cancelled a concert in 2000.

US District Judge Larry Hicks ordered Stewart's lawyers to pay an additional $153 483 in contempt-of-court sanctions and legal costs for failing to turn over information to lawyers for casino giant Harrah's Entertainment before trial last year.

Stewart's attorney, Louis "Skip" Miller in Los Angeles, declined comment on Monday on the sanctions. Miller said Stewart intends to appeal the verdict and jury award.

Hicks' judicial order, dated Friday, put Stewart on the hook for $3.06m, including the $2m advance he was paid by the Rio hotel-casino and more than $1m in interest, penalties and attorney fees. The British rocker and his lawyers are jointly responsible for paying the sanctions.

Harrah's lawyer Kristina Pickering in Las Vegas called the civil breach-of-contract judgment "the right result" and "a long time coming." The casino company intends to ask the court to order Stewart to reimburse it for additional attorney fees and court costs, Pickering said.

The judgment resulted from a September 7 federal jury finding that Stewart should not have kept an advance he received for a December 2000 New Year's weekend show that he said he was unable to perform because of he had throat surgery several months earlier.

Jurors believed the British rocker should have returned the advance if he did not perform, the jury foreman said later.

- AP