Ghost Lawsuit: Judge Cleared of Conflict of Interest Due to Freemasons Association with Tobias Forge

After a year and a half of lawyers being lawyers and taking forever with everything (fucking lawyers, man), this past October a Swedish court dismissed the lawsuit brought against Ghost leader Tobias Forge by four of his former band members who alleged unfair payment over the years. The case was thrown out before it got to trial and the plaintiffs were ordered to cover 1.3 million kronor (roughly $145,000 USD) of Forge’s legal fees.

Not a month later, the plaintiffs appealed the decision. That in and of itself isn’t odd — appeals are filed all the time — but the reason why is most certainly out of the ordinary: they alleged that the judge who presided over the case, Henrik Ibold, was biased because he and Forge are both members of the same branch of the Swedish Order Of Freemasons. At the time, Ibold denied having any knowledge of his shared Freemasons membership with Forge and stated that he wasn’t worried his decision would be deemed corrupt.

The courts have now borne out Ibold’s sentiments, as a new ruling has rejected any potential conflict of interest claims. According to Corren.se, the Court of Appeals wrote in its decision that “the judge should have informed the parties involved of his membership as soon as he became aware that Tobias Forge might also be a member,” but that his omission isn’t enough to establish any wrongdoing.

With the conflict of interest claim out of the way, the Court of Appeals will now turn its attention to deciding whether to take on the case on standard appeal grounds. So it’s back to lawyers being lawyers… see you again in a few months.

[via The PRP]