Sir Elton loses legal appeal

The singer was appealing against an earlier decision against him

LONDON, England -- Sir Elton John has lost the latest stage of his legal battle over a £14 million claim involving touring costs he believes he should never have paid.

The UK's Court of Appeal threw out the singer's case on Monday by a majority.

Sir Elton is facing an estimated £8 million ($12 million) legal bill after losing the original case brought in the High Court in April.

Sir Elton had sued Andrew Haydon, former managing director of John Reid Enterprises, which for many years was the star's management company.

He was also suing top accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, which looked after his business interests.

In April 2001, Mr Justice Ferris, sitting in the High Court in London, ruled that Sir Elton's claim in respect of tour costs failed against both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Haydon.

A claim of negligence against them was also rejected.

Sir Elton's appeal was only against PricewaterhouseCoopers, which he alleged was negligent in managing his affairs. The firm of accountants contested his claim.

Mark Howard QC, representing the singer who did not appear in court on Monday, had told the judges that Sir Elton was suing for negligence for failing to report to him that he, rather than his management company, was bearing the costs of various agencies which were providing services for Sir Elton's overseas tours.

Howard said the total costs borne by Sir Elton, which he says should have been paid by the management company, amounted to £7 million ($10.5 million).

He was claiming damages in this sum, plus interest.

Lord Justice Robert Walker, giving the lead judgment, said: "Sir Elton was and is (as he made clear in his evidence) a musician and an artist, not a businessman or an accountant, and his long-standing friendship with Mr. Reid was far from an ordinary commercial relationship.

"He was and is known as a man of extraordinary generosity. It would be wrong for the court not to recognise those matters."

He said it would also have been wrong for the courts to give more than "trifling weight" to normal practice in the entertainment industry over payment of expenses.

The judge added: "To my mind this appeal illustrates, yet again, a melancholy truth.

"The fact that very large sums of money are to change hands under a commercial agreement, and further fact that it has been negotiated and prepared over a long period by well-remunerated professionals, provide no guarantee of competent drafting."

During the original case, the court heard headline-grabbing details of Sir Elton's extravagant lifestyle, including how he spent nearly £18 million ($26 million) in a 20-month period.

The singer, who once boasted he could find a shop in the Sahara Desert, has sold over 100 million albums during his long career and achieved superstar status with hits such as "Candle in the Wind" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."