EXCLUSIVE: Dr. Dre scores victory against estranged wife Nicole Young as judge rules her separate civil suit claiming rights to half his trademark and ‘billion-dollar’ empire will be settled in their divorce case instead
- Nicole Young filed a separate civil suit last year accusing Dr. Dre of transferring trademark rights to his name and album to a company owned solely by him
- The 51-year-old had claimed partial ownership and accused Dre of transferring the property without her ‘knowledge or consent’
- Court papers obtained by DailyMail.com reveal a judge this week reassigned the suit to family court where it’ll be combined with their divorce case instead
- Dre had pushed back against his wife’s claims saying he has used his stage name since the 80s and his debut album was released four years before their marriage
- His legal team called for the civil suit to be thrown out, saying that her financial claims should be addressed by the divorce court instead
- ‘Both cases arise from the same or substantially identical transactions requiring the determination of substantially identical questions of law or fact,’ docs state
Hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre has scored a major victory against estranged wife Nicole Young by defeating a separate lawsuit in which she was laying claim to half his estimated billion dollar empire, DailyMail.com can reveal.
After filing for divorce from Dre last June, Nicole, 51, filed the civil suit, accusing her husband of transferring trademark rights to his ‘Dr. Dre’ name and his triple-platinum album, The Chronic, to a company solely owned by him.
Nicole had claimed in court papers that she owned half the trademarks and their revenue and the transfer of property occurred without her ‘knowledge or consent.’
But Dre, real name Andre Young, fought back, insisting she has no such claim – since he’s been using the Dr. Dre name since the 1980s and his debut album was released in 1992, four years before he married her.
His legal team called for Nicole’s civil suit to be thrown out, saying that her financial claims should be addressed by the divorce court instead.
Hip hop mogul Dr. Dre (pictured in his home studio in January) has scored a victory against his estranged wife Nicole Young amid their ongoing bitter divorce
Nicole, 51 (pictured in 2018) last year filed a lawsuit separate to the couple’s divorce case, claiming partial ownership to her estranged husband’s trademarked name and his debut triple-platinum album after he ‘secretly’ transferred the rights to a company owned solely by him
And this week at Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge David Cowan, agreed, reassigning the civil lawsuit to the LA Family Court where it will be combined with the couple’s divorce case.
‘Both cases arise directly out of the parties’ marriage,’ said Judge Cowan in a written ruling obtained by DailyMail.com.
‘Both cases arise from the same or substantially identical transactions requiring the determination of substantially identical questions of law or fact.
‘The court orders the civil case reassigned to (the Family Court) for all purposes.’
The ruling could potentially work in Dre’s favor as the couple’s divorce proceedings have been centered around their disputed prenuptial agreement, which Young claims is not valid.
The rapper, who has an estimated fortune of $800million, in December produced documents from the agreement that could prevent his wife from staking a claim to half of his wealth, if the judge determines whether the contract is enforceable.
Dre’s victory comes just days after he was left to find new attorneys when a judge kicked his divorce lawyers, Laura Wasser and Howard King, off his legal team over a conflict of interest.
Dr. Dre had pushed back against the suit, claiming his debut album The Chronic (pictured) and his stage name existed before their marriage
King had represented both Dre and Nicole during their marriage and Wasser was ‘vicariously disqualified’ because she was working with King.
In the civil lawsuit Nicole brought against her soon-to-be-ex husband, Dre, 56, lashed out at her ‘temerity’ in demanding half the rights to his name.
‘Nicole, after commencing divorce proceedings against Andre Young, seeking over $400 million, then stealing almost $400,000 from a [company] that funds [Dre’s] recording studio, Nicole has decided that $400,400,000 and one lawsuit are not enough,’ said his legal team in a written statement.
‘Nicole filed this separate action solely in order to repeat the same litany of lies that have been incorporated into prior pleadings in an unsuccessful attempt to embarrass Young into grossly overpaying for his freedom from Nicole.’
The couple’s ongoing divorce action has been growing more and more hostile as it progresses.
Earlier this year DailyMail.com revealed that Nicole filed court documents accusing Dre of violent and emotional abuse during their 24-year marriage.
The music tycoon held a gun to her head, punched her in the face and slammed her against a wall, lifting her off her feet by her neck, she declared.
The small win comes days after Dre’s attorneys Laura Wasser (left) and Howard King (right) were disqualified from the case because King had previously acted as their family lawyer
Nicole and Dre have two children together, Truice and Truly, while Dre has six children by five different women
Shortly after her scathing declaration to the court, Nicole’s lawyers huddled with Dr. Dre’s lawyers and the end result was that Dre – reportedly still in his hospital bed after suffering a brain aneurysm – signed an agreement to pay Nicole a lump sum of $2million in temporary support.
Dre had been paying Nicole $293,000 a month in support. But she is asking the court to force him to pay her almost $2 million a month, plus another $5 million for attorney fees.
Nicole – who claimed in legal documents that Dre has more than $260million on hand in cash and Apple stocks – contends that she has a right to continue the lavish lifestyle she had as Mrs. Andre Young – which she said cost around $2.3million per month.
Nicole has accused Dre of ‘rampant and repeated marital misconduct’ and she has filed legal documents wanting to know if he had fathered a child outside their marriage.
She also named three of his alleged mistresses – singer Jillian Speer, model turned skin care entrepreneur Kili Anderson and Crystal Rogers, aka Crystal Sierra, known as the ‘Queen of Latin hip-hop’ – and earlier this month a judge ordered all three to testify in the Dre divorce case.
The biggest issue of dispute in this hostile divorce has been the pre-marital agreement (PMA) the couple signed just before they married in Maui, Hawaii on May 25 1996.
Nicole, claims she was ‘coerced’ into signing the PMA and after their marriage, Dre tore it up in a romantic gesture of love for her.
He insists he didn’t force her to sign the PMA, he never destroyed it and it was never changed. Dre is asking the divorce court to determine whether the PMA is valid and enforceable.
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