A Nevada federal judge has ordered the owners of Las Vegas’ KAOS nightclub to pay DJ-artist Kaskade nearly $8 million after the venue cancelled his his $300,000 per night residency.
The U.S. District Court in Nevada made its decision Friday following a bench trial in November, and ruled in favor of and awarded $7,950,000 to Kaskade (real name: Ryan Raddon) and Big City Dynasty Corp. and against defendant FP Holdings, a limited partnership connected to Palms’ parent company Red Rocks Resorts Inc. The court also awarded Kaskade and Big City legal fees for FP’s breach of contract. Kaskade was represented by Reed Smith LLP in the negotiation of the contract at issue, and by Reed Smith and Snell and Wilmer at trial.
Jordan Siev of Reed Smith LLP, who led the trial team, said in a statement “We are pleased that the Court found in Kaskade’s favor and upheld the parties’ carefully negotiated agreement.”
According to a rep for the artist and a report in Billboard, Kaskade filed a lawsuit in December of 2019 against club owners FP Holdings, which is controlled by Frank III and Lorenzo Fertitta, claiming he had multiple dates remaining on his contract that he was due to be paid for. FP attorney’s countered that those dates should not include 30 shows scheduled for 2020, which would not have taken place due to the pandemic and argued the company owed Kaskade $1.2 million.
However, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Gordon ruled on Friday that Kaskade “could have performed several shows between Jan. 1 and March 15, 2020, before the shutdown order,” and also said the club had not made a sufficient effort to explore other arrangements to stage Kaskade concerts, such as drive-in or virtual concerts, while also noting that the suit was filed more than three before the pandemic.