Singer Seal loses court appeal over payments

LONDON (Reuters) - British pop star Seal has lost his appeal against an earlier court judgment that ordered him to pay his former manager 500,000 pounds ($980,000) in commission from his first two albums.

In a written ruling at London's High Court issued on Wednesday, judge Roger Toulson also ordered the Grammy-winning singer to pay his former manager's legal costs, with 175,000 pounds to be paid up front.

Seal was not present during the appeal hearing earlier this month, but was in court last June. At that time he had said that John Wadlow, his manager until 1995, had been like a surrogate father but that he had later been "ripped off" by him.

Seal, whose real name is Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel, had argued that Wadlow was not entitled to the commission, saying the agreements between them were the result of "undue influence" exerted by Wadlow.

The performer of hits including "Kiss From a Rose" and "Crazy," also told the court that in the five years after he parted company with Wadlow in 1995 he paid him $4 million, which he said was "in my book a substantial amount of money."

Both of Seal's first two albums reached No. 1 in the British charts. The overall cost of his court defeat has yet to be calculated, but estimates put it as high as one million pounds.

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