Stones Settle Suit after Suicide Details Breached

A group of insurers, during the course of a lawsuit, divulged sensitive health details about Mick Jagger’s girlfriend and the Rolling Stones lead singer.

The disclosures began when the band called off an Australian tour in March after Jagger’s girlfriend, fashion designer L'Wren Scott, took her own life.

The insurers rejected the band’s claims for losses incurred by the cancellation, and the Stones sued in Britain. 

The policy covered the cancellation of shows related to the unexpected death of any of the band's family members and their loved ones listed in the policy.

The insurers claimed Scott, who was listed, might have been suffering from a pre-existing mental illness and that the situation invalidated the policy.

“In court documents that became public, upsetting Jagger and other band members, insurers maintained that ‘Scott intended to, and did, commit suicide and her death was therefore not 'sudden and unforeseen',” AAP reports.

One document said that Jagger was "diagnosed as suffering from acute traumatic stress disorder" after Scott's death and advised by doctors not to perform for at least 30 days.

The arguments reached the United States when the insurers in October asked a federal judge in Salt Lake City to force Scott's Utah-based brother, Randall Bambrough, to provide information in the case, according to the New York Daily News.

“The judge gave a green light for the insurers to subpoena Bambrough for a deposition and request six months worth of personal text messages, emails and other correspondence,” the newspaper reports.

They wanted "all correspondence relating to any treatment obtained by Ms. Scott for depression," according to the filings in Utah.

A spokesman for the Stones said that the case has been settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

"We are deeply upset that confidential medical and other private information about members of the band and their immediate family and loved ones has entered the public domain as a result of a US court filing initiated by insurers four weeks ago," the spokesman from London public relations firm LD Communications said.

"This was done without the knowledge of the band or reference to their legal representatives," he added.