A GROUP of Malaysian lawyers led by Mathew Thomas Philip has initiated a pro bono class action suit on behalf of the local artists and vendors who were involved in the Good Vibes Festival (GVF) 2023 against The 1975.
Philip who named himself as the solicitor for the plaintiff has named the defendants as Matt Timothy Healy (lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the indie pop rock band), Adam Brian Hann, Ross Steward MacDonald and George Bedford Daniel.
“Our pro bono team (which also consist of) Ahmad Iyas Husni Phoebe Loi and Nandakumar S. Haridas are putting their heart and minds to improving the first working draft of the class action by local artists and vendors against The 1975,” the founder and managing partner of Kuala Lumpur-based Thomas Philip Advocates and Solicitors posted on his Facebook page.
He further requested people with information that may have a bearing on the suit against The 1975 – such as the location of assets belonging to the The 1975 – to contact the pro bono team.
Among other’s the class action suit seeks to claim reliefs from the pop band’s negligence comprising (i) general damages to be assessed by the court; (ii) interests on all sums found to be due to the plaintiff at such rates and for such periods deem fit; (iii) costs; and other further reliefs deem appropriate by the court.
Commending Philip and team for his free legal services, netizen Ximena Lamiel stressed the need “not to be intimidated by the childish and immature fools of the band”.
‘I live in the West and we don’t have the remotest idea of how to live in Asia. Let’s not try to change the rules because a rebellious act like that of the musician is useless and will not change … I hope they pay for everything caused because all the economic losses of hard-working and honest people cannot remain like this.”
Praising the efforts of Philip and team, netizen Julian Keyworth suggested that this should have been the manner in which Communication and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil handled the situation instead of “creating a knee jerk reaction that may have already cost thousands of jobs not to mention livelihood”.
Asked by SH Tan if the “the government should be made a party (to the class suit) since they are the one that made the decision of cancelling the event”, Philip asked the netizen to attend a town hall meeting on Tuesday (July 25) while maintaining his team’s stance of “suing The 1975 (and) not the government”.
“Matt Healy of The 1975 breached their terms of contract (drunken act with alcohol on stage, criticising Malaysia, etc etc). All these had triggered the government to respond in such pressured time,” netizen Ed Adeeb enlightened SH Tan.
“Ideally, they should have been detained instead of letting them exit Malaysia in the wee hours. The festival could have been resumed.” – July 23, 2023
