'Michael Jackson caused his death’

Jackson, and his three children against AEG Live, the erstwhile promoters of the deceased’s planned comeback concert.

In the suit, Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and his children had accused AEG Live of complicity in the death of the singer on the eve of his comeback tour.

The plaintiffs had claimed that the company hired the deceased’s physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, and pressured him to bend medical rules in order to ensure the tour was not cancelled.

Murray was subsequently found guilty of providing Jackson with the surgical anesthetic Propofil as a sleeping aid, which a coroner found had caused Jackson’s death.

But the defence counsel for AEG Live, Marvin Putnam, told a Los Angeles court on Thursday that Jackson’s relatives should blame the departed singer for his causing own death.

According to a report monitored online, Putnam denied that the company had hired Murray, noting that the latter had been treating Jackson and his family for many years before the tour.

“The evidence is very clear that Michael Jackson was the one who hired Dr Murray. Jackson was responsible for his own health, certainly his own health care, and he’s responsible for his own choices, no matter how bad those choices turn out to be. The truth here is a tragedy. It is a tragedy for this family, for his mother and for his kids. It’s horrible and it’s incredibly sad. But it’s not a tragedy of AEG Live’s making,” Putnam said.

The report said the lawyer insisted that Jackson never told AEG Live about his reliance on the dangerous medication.

“AEG would have never agreed to finance this tour if they knew Mr Jackson was playing Russian Roulette in his bedroom every night,” he was quoted as saying.

Putnam’s defence of AEG Live’s position on Jackson’s death has been consistent during the five-month trial. The company had always argued that it was Jackson who hired Murray.

Murray is due to be released next month after serving two years in prison, following his conviction for what the Jackson described as the wrongful death of the pop star.

Jackson’s family lawyer, Brian Panish, claimed in his closing arguments, that AEG had known about Jackson’s past health problems and was negligent in not checking the background of Murray, who was deeply in debt at the time and needed the tour to go ahead to save him from financial ruin.

Although Jackson’s family is asking for $290m in personal damages from the promotional firm for the late singer’s mother and his three children, the report says the charges have not been specified.