Sir Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills has won a lengthy legal battle against a former publicist.
Michele Blanchard agreed to accept a reduced fee to represent the former model in 2007 after Mills told her she could no longer afford to pay her £3,100-a-month fee, but when her client scored a £24.3 million divorce settlement from McCartney, the PR felt she deserved the full amount backdated.
Mills refused to pay the final invoice for £105,000, which included the money she thought she had saved, and the two women publicly fell out.
Blanchard filed a lawsuit claiming her former client had intentionally misrepresented her financial situation, but US judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled in Mills' favour, claiming that the evidence Blanchard presented to support her claim was not enough.
They also dismissed Blanchard's allegations that Mills had promised to pay her, ruling, "A promise to do something in the future can give rise to fraud when the promise is made with no intention to perform. But Mills' statement is too vague to support a concrete promise to pay Blanchard US$5,000 per month for future work and for work done two years prior.
"The invoices Blanchard sent Mills beginning in April 2007 stated the 'total amount due' each month was US$3,000, plus expenses. These invoices negate any inference that the parties intended a retroactive payment for the same periods for more money."
WENN.com
source: newshub archive
