Two concertgoers who attended Madonna’s Brooklyn show for her Celebration Tour and subsequently sued over a delayed start time have voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.
Plaintiffs Michael Fellows and Jason Alvarez gave notice of their dismissal with prejudice, meaning their claims cannot be re-filed. Jeff Warshafsky, representing both Madonna and Live Nation, filed a letter stating that the dismissal “was not the result of any settlement” between the parties.
Warshafsky further noted that Madonna and the concert promoter “do not agree with plaintiffs’ position that each party should bear its own fees and costs,” as the dismissal notice initially suggested. He pointed out their legal expenses, including “filing two motions to dismiss” and opposing a false settlement notice the court rejected last week.
“Defendants believe that this action was a frivolous strike suit designed to force them to incur legal expenses,” Warshafsky wrote. “Plaintiffs have now abandoned this lawsuit when it became clear that this approach would not result in a settlement payment and that they would need to oppose defendants’ motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint.”
Warshafsky did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The plaintiffs first filed the suit against Madonna in January, a month after attending her show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The concert started at 10:30 p.m., two hours after the advertised time, and they accused Madonna and Live Nation of false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices. They claimed that after the show, they faced limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and increased transportation costs at that late hour. They also mentioned that some attendees “had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day.”
Since the New York suit first surfaced, Madonna and Live Nation faced several more similar lawsuits. Three concert-goers who attended her show in Washington, D.C. sued over the start times in April, and in May, an attendee at her Kia Forum show in Los Angeles sued over the start time and new allegations that attendees were exposed to “pornography without warning.”
Madonna’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the plaintiffs didn’t demonstrate any clear injuries. They pointed out that concerts rarely start on time and that Madonna’s shows are known for their late starts. They also highlighted that one of the plaintiffs, Hadden, had posted on Facebook the day after the concert, praising the show and indicating he had attended multiple Madonna concerts in the past.
“Mr. Hadden’s press interviews at best suggest he may be irritated that one of his favorite acts takes the stage later than he would prefer,” the lawyers said, arguing that this was not sufficient grounds for a claim of injury. They also alleged there was no proof the late start time injured any concertgoers, including the plaintiffs, who stayed to watch the whole show instead of leaving early.
“Fans got just what they paid for: a full-length, high-quality show by the Queen of Pop,” Madonna’s lawyers said.
In 2019, a Florida fan sued over Madonna’s delayed start in Miami Beach. During a Las Vegas concert in 2019, Madonna told her fans, “There’s something that you all need to understand, and that is, that a queen is never late.”
After two New York City men sued Madonna, Live Nation, and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena for the late start, Madonna’s legal team asked the court to dismiss the case. They argued that there were never “any statements promising when Madonna would take the stage or end her show” and that no one involved in the suit “made any such representations” as to when she would begin the show.
“The event was scheduled for 8:30 p.m. and that time was printed on the event tickets. But nowhere did Defendants advertise that Madonna would take the stage at 8:30 p.m., and no reasonable concertgoer—and certainly no Madonna fan—would expect the headline act at a major arena concert to take the stage at the ticketed event time,” the request reads. “Rather, a reasonable concertgoer would understand that the venue’s doors will open at or before the ticketed time, one or more opening acts may perform while attendees arrive and make their way to their seats and before the headline act takes the stage, and the headline act will take the stage later in the evening.”
The documents also included alleged screenshots from Facebook showing Hadden praising the tour and indicating he had attended multiple Madonna concerts in the past. The dismissal request says the original complaint “concedes that Madonna fans, like Mr. Hadden, would not expect Madonna to appear onstage at the printed 8:30 p.m. event time,” and claims they “knew or should have known that the concerts would not start at 8:30 p.m.”
Finally, the dismissal says the plaintiffs “do not plausibly allege they suffered any injury,” and that arriving home late “is not a cognizable injury” to warrant a lawsuit against Madonna.
A source previously told PEOPLE that the Dec. 13 concert date suffered delays due to “issues during soundcheck that caused the schedule to get delayed by an hour.”
In January, Madonna’s management and Live Nation responded to the lawsuit in a press statement, saying, “The shows opened in North America at Barclays in Brooklyn as planned, with the exception of a technical issue Dec. 13 during soundcheck. This caused a delay that was well documented in press reports at the time. We intend to defend this case vigorously.”
The Celebration tour kicked off the first of its 81 shows in October and is set to conclude with a free seaside concert in Brazil on May 4.
