Nelly Sued By St. Lunatics Over 2001 Album, Free City

St. Lunatics’ Ali Drops Lawsuit Against Nelly

By bigced 6 days ago

Ali (Ali Jones), former St. Lunatics member, dropped the pending lawsuit against Nelly (Cornell Haynes) April 10

After the St. Lunatics sued Nelly for allegedly not compensating them for work done on his first album, after several group members separated themselves from the legal matter, the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed.

According to Billboard, Ali (Ali Jones), one-fourth of the St. Lunatics, dropped the pending litigation against Nelly (Cornell Haynes) April 10. An initial filing in September 2024 accused the Hot in Herre star of not giving proper crediting and royalty payments for Nelly’s debut album, Country Grammar, to the group members. Less than a month later, former St. Lunatics members Murphy Lee (Tohri Harper), Kyjuan (Robert Kyjuan), and City Spud (Lavell Webb) requested to be taken off the lawsuit, citing they never authorized the attorney who filed the suit to include them in the legal proceeding.

Attorneys for Ali did not give a reason for withdrawing the lawsuit.

However, Nelly’s attorney, Ken Freundlich, has asked the judge not to dismiss the case yet. They are requesting that Ali’s lawyer be sanctioned for bringing the “frivolous” lawsuit against his client.

“Plaintiff’s counsel succeeded in its frivolous campaign aimed at forcing Haynes to spend money defending Plaintiff’s ridiculous time-barred claims,” Freundlich stated in response to Ali’s request. “The Court is respectfully requested to retain jurisdiction and set a briefing and hearing schedule for [potential sanctions].”

In November, Ali’s attorneys filed a revised version of the lawsuit, only placing Ali as the plaintiff. Yet, Nelly’s attorneys labeled the case “frivolous” and added that the suit was filed years after the statute of limitations had expired. In January, they stated that Ali’s attorneys should be penalized for bringing this action to court.

“Plaintiff and his counsel should be sanctioned in the full amount … that Haynes has been forced to incur in defending this action,” Nelly’s attorneys wrote at the time. “That is because plaintiff’s claims should never have been brought in the first place.”

In March, the judge said he would not rule on that motion until he decided whether to dismiss the case.

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