Flo Rida has dodged a bullet, or more accurately a hefty fine, with regards to his no-show at the Fat As Butter Music Festival during 2011.
The cancellation caused some problems when planners Mothership Music looked to file a lawsuit for damages based for failure to meet contractual obligations. For one thing, the trial would have to take place in Australia (the festival is held in Newcastle) and the company had no way to serve the rapper court papers. Therefore a judge deemed that Mothership could do so via e-mail or by posting a notice on Flo Rida's Facebook wall. When he failed to show up for a hearing, Judge Judith Gibson ordered him to pay $380,000 in damages from the event, as well as $20,000 in legal fees (In U.S. dollars, it comes out to about $377,000).
Not surprisingly, Flo Rida and his legal team opted to appeal. The New South Wales Court of Appeals declared on Tuesday that Facebook and e-mail were not legitimate ways of declaring court papers, suggesting that there is no proof Flo Rida himself actually operates the page.
"The evidence before the primary judge [Judge Gibson] did not in any event constitute a sufficient basis for the making of the substituted service order insofar as that order provided for notice to be given to Flo Rida by means of Facebook," the ruling read. "The evidence did not establish, other than by mere assertion, that the Facebook page was in fact that of Flo Rida and did not prove that a posting on it was likely to come to his attention in a timely fashion."
The moral in all of this is to set an alarm; Flo Rida only missed his performance because he overslept the morning of the festival.
