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Lawyers for a technology company suing Kanye West accuse the rapper of walking out of a deposition having delivered a “profanity-laced tirade” instead of actually answering any questions.
According to Law360, MyChannel has filed a motion in court requesting that West be forced to take part in an in-person deposition this month, after one recently conducted on Zoom proved fruitless.
The company claims that West refused to answers its attorney’s questions during the original deposition, that took place as part of the ongoing legal dispute, instead choosing to “insult and abuse” the lawyer – including repeatedly referring to him as “boy”. West also refused to stop using his phone during the conversation, saying that his “mental genius-ness” required him to do so. He also apparently claimed that the attorney was “in a movie of West’s creation”.
After fifteen minutes, the motion says, West covered his face and then “walked out of the deposition … and refused to participate any longer”.
MyChannel took legal action against West last year, accusing him of ripping off its technology for his Sunday Service events. It claims that it went into business with West in 2018, with a plan to use its integrated video and e-commerce platform to boost the website for the rapper’s Yeezy clothing brand. However, it says, after the company invested $10 million in the project and moved its headquarters to accommodate West, the musician broke off all communication, only to later rip-off MyChannel’s tech for Sunday Service.
Following the halted deposition, the new motion also calls for the judge overseeing the case to apply $62,725 in sanctions, saying that West’s legal reps “didn’t flinch or raise a peep in watching their client conduct himself in bad faith”.
West’s attorney responded, saying that the new motion was “rife with misrepresentations and is nothing short of a blatant and transparent attempt to gain leverage in a case that plaintiff knows has no merit”. They add that they had already agreed that the virtual deposition was “not productive” and they were trying to schedule an in-person interview to take place by the end of June. They also claim that MyChannel’s attorneys had even agreed to this, before filing the new motion without warning.
The virtual deposition took place earlier this month after the judge rejected an application for an in-person meeting, citing COVID-19 concerns. MyChannel’s lawyers say that West used this decision to “game the system, and violate every known rule of decency and good faith under the federal rules while thumbing his nose at the authority of this court”.
It remains to be seen if West is any better behaved at an in-person deposition, assuming one can be arranged. The judge has not yet ruled on MyChannel’s motion.
