Kanye West, now known as Ye, has been ordered to pay Tony Saxon’s legal team $181,433 in attorneys’ fees and costs. That comes on top of the $140,000 a Los Angeles jury awarded Saxon in March. Superior Court Judge Brock Hammond signed the order Oct. 13, which brings Ye’s total bill in the case to about $321,000. The twist is that the legal fees are now bigger than the verdict itself.
Saxon is the construction manager Ye hired in 2021 to oversee his plan to strip his Tadao Ando designed Malibu beach house into an off the grid bunker. Saxon told jurors he hurt his back and neck on the job and that Ye never secured workers’ compensation coverage. The jury agreed that Ye was liable.
Why does Kanye West owe more in fees than the verdict?
California labor law lets a worker who wins this kind of case recover legal costs. Saxon’s attorney Neama Rahmani pointed to that rule right after the March verdict. Judge Hammond awarded $147,000 in attorneys’ fees and $34,433.93 in costs. He first proposed a smaller number, then raised it after Saxon’s lawyer Ron Zambrano argued it was too low. Ye’s lawyers had pushed for zero.
Was the $1 million prediction wrong?
So far, yes. Minutes after the verdict, Rahmani predicted the judgment would reach seven figures once fees were added. The final number landed at roughly a third of that. Saxon asked jurors for $1.7 million, and his team later sought $1.2 million in fees plus $300,000 in costs. Add it up and Saxon walked away with about 10% of the $3.2 million his side wanted.
Why is Kanye West’s camp calling it a win?
Ye’s spokesman, Milo Yiannopoulos, called the ruling humiliating for Rahmani. Yiannopoulos, a controversial right wing commentator, had vowed after the verdict to fight any fee award on the grounds that Saxon worked as an unlicensed contractor. That fight failed, and Ye is still writing the check.
Both sides have a point. Jurors ruled that Saxon was an employee and was hurt on the job. They also found he was not wrongfully fired, awarded no punitive damages and found no malice or fraud. One juror told Rolling Stone the panel went through bank statements line by line to trace the $240,000 Ye wired Saxon in late 2021. The jury concluded Saxon roughly broke even on wages.
What did jurors think of Kanye West on the stand?
They were not impressed. Two jurors told Rolling Stone that Ye appeared to fall asleep during his testimony, and one said he looked at the jury with contempt. His wife, Bianca Censori, an architect who worked on the house, testified that Ye disliked stairs and windows and wanted ramps and slides instead.
What does the Malibu mansion say about Kanye West’s money moves?
This is the part most coverage skips. Ye bought the house for $57 million in 2021 and sold it gutted three years later for $21 million. That is a $36 million loss. Saxon’s entire award is less than 1% of what the renovation cost Ye in property value. The courtroom bill is a footnote. The demolition was the real expense.
For working people, the case is a reminder of why workers’ compensation matters. One injured manager without coverage turned into a three-year legal war with one of the most famous artists alive.
What happens next in the Kanye West case?
Ye is appealing the $140,000 judgment. His countersuit accusing Saxon of placing an improper lien on the Malibu property to squeeze the sale is still pending. Billboard reports that two more lawsuits from former workers across his companies, including Yeezy and the now-closed Donda Academy, are set for trial in February. Malibu may be over for Ye, but the court fights are not.
