ceofari
Cardi B will collect $350,000 in lawyer’s fees from an Orange County, California, man who charged her in court of stealing his tiger tattoo for her suggestive 2016 mixtape cover.
The win for Cardi B, whose original name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, follows a years-long legal altercation over whether or not she was justified in using the tattoo on the cover of “Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1.”
On Tuesday, Judge Cormac J. Carney ordered that Kevin Michael Brophy, the man with the tiger tattoo that sued to the Grammy-winning rapper for copyright infringement in 2017, pay the $350,000 plus 10% interest per year to Cardi B after the two agreed to turn over the ability to file future motions on the lawsuit.
The agreement was 1st reported by trial lawyer, Meghann Cuniff.
Cardi B took the stand in Santa Ana, California, in October to protect herself after Brophy, who originally sought $5 million in damages from the rapper, argued that a slightly-altered picture of the tiger used on his tattoo imposed on a man giving Cardi B oral sex in a limousine — as shown on the album cover — “devalued” his art. Brophy’s tattoo was designed by artist Tim Hendricks and took months to complete, as per to the case.
Cardi B’s attorney argued that the art fell under fair use, that Brophy did not suffer due to the case, and that no one associated the album art with him.
A judge sided with Cardi B, but Brophy later questioned Carney to reevaluate the ruling. The judge upheld the jury’s decision, writing that it was reasonable for the jury to end that audiences would not conflate the man on Cardi B’s album art with Brophy.
Brophy’s lawyers filed a motion for a new trial in January — arguing that they were unable to adequately cross-examine Cardi B during their original trial — but it was withdrawn as a result of the agreement.
