As if hip-hop superstar 50 Cent didn’t have enough on his plate with a recording career, a movie career, and occasional feuds with other rappers, he also has had to deal with a $50 million support lawsuit from his son’s mother. He got a break on February 5, however, when a Manhattan State Supreme Court judge threw the case out and dismissed all of his ex’s claims.
Shaniqua Tompkins, who dated 50 Cent for several years before he made it big, claims that she and the rapper made a verbal agreement in which he said he would financially support her for life if his rapping career took off. This supposedly took place in her bedroom in September 1996. She also says that she supported 50 Cent when they began seeing each other in 1995 and that she nursed him back to health after a gunman shot him nine times in May 2000, according to The Associated Press.
But Tompkins’ efforts to Get Rich or Die Tryin’ have been in vain. She’ll have to settle for a mere $6,700 per month in child support to help take of their son, Marquise Jackson, 12.
Judge Carol Edmead, who presided over the case, told the New York City court that the couple’s situation was nothing more than “an unfortunate tale of a love relationship gone sour”, AP reported. She said that the six-year statute of limitations would bar Tompkins’ claim even if such an agreement had taken place. “It is incredible,” Judge Edmead added, “that two then-unemployed, penniless 21-year-olds would make such an oral contract.”
During the case, 50 Cent said that he had loved Tompkins at the time their son was born in October 1997 but had had no intention of marrying her. He denied having made any such oral agreement of lifetime support.
Paul Catsandonis, Tompkins’ family law attorney, told reporters afterward that he and Tompkins would consider appealing the decision.
“I’m very thankful for this decision. I knew that, once the facts were heard… justice would prevail,” 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, said in a press statement. “I hope now that we can put this behind us and move forward with our lives.”
50 Cent’s family lawyer, Brett Kimmel, expressed satisfaction with the judge’s decision as well. “Ms. Tompkins’ claims pertaining to a $50 million verbal contract were entire frivolous. In dismissing the case before trial, the court is sending a message,” Kimmel told E! Online after the ruling. “This is a complete and total victory for 50.”
This wasn’t the first time the 32-year-old Tompkins has sued 50 Cent. In 2008, she filed a claim against him to halt her eviction from the rapper’s $2.4 million home in Dix Hills, Long Island, saying that he’d also promised to give her the house. The house mysteriously burned down in May; police have investigated the event but have not yet filed any arson charges. The following month, Tompkins filed for a restraining order against 50 Cent, who countersued for $20 million for defamation.
50 Cent, 33, will release his fourth studio album, Before I Self Destruct, in March. He has received 13 Grammy Award nominations over the last five years; he is known for the hits “In da Club”, “21 Questions”, and “Candy Shop”, and his film credits include the semi-autobiographical Get Rich or Die Tryin’ as well as Home of the Brave and Righteous Kill.
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