Mick Mars has won a victory in his ongoing lawsuit against his former Motley Crue bandmates.
The 'Home Sweet Home' rockers - Vince Neil, 62, Nikki Sixx, 65, and Tommy Lee, 61 - have been ordered to pay the 72-year-old guitarist's legal fees after they took eight months to supply corporate documents to him.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant is quoted by Rolling Stone as saying in his ruling on Tuesday (16.01.24): "The requests were not burdensome. Yet, Mars was compelled to file suit, and it appears plain that production would not have occurred without it. Mars is entitled to attorney fees."
The trio – who replaced Mick with 53-year-old axe-slayer John 5 – had claimed that the documents they presented on November 2, were "all of the responsive documents" they had.
However, it turned out they failed to supply incorporation and income tax returns as part of the 1,372 pages sent over in early December.
Chalfant wrote: "These documents should have been produced without the need for prodding by Mars.
"[The] failure to produce the documents earlier than December 8 amounts to a refusal."
Despite this, the judge ruled that the lawsuit is "moot" because of Mars' later request for 2023 general ledger entries because they were not listed by him.
Motley view this as their own victory and consider the case done and dusted.
Their attorney Sasha Frid told the publication: "The case is over. That's the key takeaway.
"By denying the petition as moot and ending the case, the court found that the band turned over all the documents to Mars and there is nothing more to do. The band went above and beyond its obligations by providing much more documents than the statute required – indeed, the court's decision explained the thousands of documents that the band provided to Mars."
However, there is still the private arbitration to take place later this year, which will decide if Mars should have to pay back his shares in the 'Girls, Girls, Girls' band.
He filed a lawsuit at Los Angeles County’s Superior Court in April 2023, in which he claimed his bandmates had been "gaslighting" him and belittling his musicianship.
In his original filing, he accused the glam metal band of trying to force him out after he had to step back from touring due to longstanding health issues that have worsened.
Mars claimed he would have remained a member of the band regardless of his retirement from touring.
Mars' lawyer Ed McPherson called the trio "bullies".
He told Rolling Stone: "Finally, somebody, somewhere told these guys they can't bully Mick anymore. We're in the middle of a huge arbitration that will ultimately decide if Mick has to give up his shares or not, if they did things properly or not. Obviously we claim they didn't do anything properly. But they feel that they're above the rules. And that's what this lawsuit was about."
He added: "This was them feeling they were above the rules, and this judge saying, ‘No, you're not. And you may have given all the documents now, so there's nothing left for me to do, but, you're going to pay for it.
"I think that's a pretty huge victory for Mick. If they want to claim a victory, that's fine. But this is someone finally telling Mick, ‘No, you're not crazy. These guys are bullying you. And we're not going to let it happen.'"
