Michael Jackson Accusers’ $400M Request Could Have ‘Destabilizing Consequences’ for Estate, Motion Claims

Michael Jackson‘s accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck are seeking a massive payout over sexual abuse allegations they made against the singer.

Robson, 43, and Safechuck, 47, are pursuing $400 million in damages, a wide-ranging motion filed on Sept. 15 and obtained by PEOPLE reveals.

In the motion, estate executors John Branca and John McClain outline the costs associated with employing law firms to handle the Michael Jackson estate’s various needs, stating, “The Estate and its businesses engage attorneys around the world to advise and represent the Estate in numerous types of business activities, including but not limited to seeking and maintaining intellectual property registrations, enforcing intellectual property rights, negotiating and documenting agreements, administering the probate proceedings, and filing and defending against ongoing litigation,” including the Robson/Safechuck case.

The documents filed by the Jackson estate in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County state Michael’s daughter Paris Jackson — who is a beneficiary of her father’s estate — is against paying all of the legal fees surrounding the sexual abuse allegations and resultant suit. However, the executors argue her position “could never justify halting all types of payments to the Estate’s many attorneys.”

If Jackson’s estate is unable to pay the legal fees, Branca and McClain claim there would be “profoundly destabilizing consequences for the estate,” per court documents.

“The alleged basis for the requested relief — that ‘delays’ in filing fee petitions and accountings somehow obscures their content — is completely untethered to the relief sought,” the documents state, calling Paris’ petition to rescind the executors’ power to pay their attorneys “meritless.”

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Should the courts side with Paris, 27, and force the executors to stop paying legal fees, the estate says it will not be financially able to continue fighting the allegations as well, as they would no longer have the power to pay their attorneys to defend ongoing litigation.

The court documents state: “The Estate would likely have to default in the Robson/Safechuck litigation, where numerous depositions, discovery matters, and other matters are scheduled to take place over the next several months, and where the plaintiffs are seeking $400 million.”

“It would be disastrous for the Estate to default in this case.”

An attorney for Paris Jackson did not return PEOPLE’s request for comment on the motion.

Safechuck and Robson claimed that they were sexually abused as children by Jackson, who died in 2009. Their allegations are detailed in the 2019 two-part documentary Leaving Neverland. The late King of Pop’s estate has previously denied the sexual abuse allegations from Safechuck and Robson.

Robson went public with his abuse allegations in 2013, claiming that Michael began sexually abusing him when he was 7 years old in 1990, and the abuse went on for seven years.

Safechuck claimed that Michael began sexually abusing him in 1988 when he was 10 years old, and continued until 1992. He testified in the “Thriller” singer’s 1993 molestation trial. They both claimed that Michael groomed them to stay silent about the alleged abuse.

Safechuck and Robson will go up against Michael’s companies in front of a jury in a lower court in November 2026.

The Estate of Michael Jackson tells PEOPLE exclusively: “The lawsuit has no merit and Michael is innocent.”

These financial concerns surrounding Michael’s estate come months after Branca and McClain faced initial pushback from Paris.

In July, she was “concerned” about the “premium payments” the estate made in legal fees in 2018 of $625K.

In response, Michael’s estate said that the payments made to lawyers were based on “experience, negotiating skills, relationships, and knowledge of the entertainment and international music publishing and recording businesses” and were “well deserved and reasonable given the nature and difficulty of the tasks performed.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.