Federal Court Tosses Lydia Harris’ $107 Million Death Row Suit Against Snoop Dogg, Lucian Grainge, Jimmy Iovine, and Other ‘Improperly Served Defendants’

Photo Credit: Steve Jennings

Universal Music head Lucian Grainge, Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Iovine, and others are off the hook in the $107 million Death Row Records lawsuit filed against them by Lydia Harris.

Technically, that dismissal stems from a failure to properly serve these and different defendants – not the merits of the case itself, which kicked off in March. We’ve covered the convoluted legal battle since then, including motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim and because of the suit’s timing.

On the latter front, Harris – the ex-wife of Death Row co-founder Michael Harris – in 2005 secured a $107 million default judgment against Suge Knight. In brief, said judgment reportedly stemmed from an agreement hammered out during the early days of Death Row, when Michael was behind bars and Lydia therefore assumed a key role at (and took a material stake in) the label.

But Knight, who’s currently incarcerated, allegedly strategized his way through bankruptcy to prevent Harris from collecting the award. Per the defendants, a 2008 bankruptcy settlement barred future claims from Harris, who seemingly acknowledged receiving a $1 million “good-faith payment” from Knight at some point.

Long story short, early 2020 saw a judge affirm the $107 million judgment despite efforts to void from Harris. And unsurprisingly, Harris subsequently took issue with (and didn’t receive any proceeds from) Snoop Dogg’s early 2022 Death Row purchase – hence the 2025 action.

Now, a few twists and turns later – more on this in a moment – the case has been tossed. In granting the months-old dismissal motion, Judge David Hittner underscored that “a party to a case may not themselves serve the summons and complaint.”

But as the self-represented Harris “personally” and therefore “improperly” served Snoop Dogg, Grainge, Iovine, and others through the mail, the court granted their dismissal requests.

Additionally, Judge Hittner dismissed the case against Knight, Interscope co-founder Ted Field, and Time Warner because they weren’t served at all, per the order. “THIS IS A FINAL JUDGMENT,” he emphasized for good measure.

Back to the above-mentioned twists and turns, recent months evidently delivered several filings from the plaintiff. Among them: an emergency motion and a motion to strike in August, a bankruptcy court clarification motion in September, and, in October, an electronically stored information (ESI) hold notice.

DMN reached out to Harris for comment but didn’t immediately receive a response.

Link to the source article – https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/11/03/lydia-harris-death-row-lawsuit-dismissed/