Ex-Ghost Members Request For Appeal In Lawsuit Against Tobias Forge To Be Heard In March

Four former members of Ghost may once again have their day in court. Last October those members—Simon Söderberg (Alpha), Mauro Rubino (Air), Henrik Palm (Ether) and Martin Hjertstedt (Earth)—saw their case dismissed after a six day trial. They had originally filed suit against Ghost bandleader Tobias Forge, claiming that a partnership had been struck during their time in the band as ‘Nameless Ghouls‘. They claimed the alleged partnership entitled them to a more equal distribution of the band’s profits.

Forge himself denied such an arrangement ever existed, explaining that the musicians were viewed more as session/touring members during their tenure. The ex-members had been seeking to establish the validity of the alleged partnership and gain access to the band’s financial records to seek further compensation via the suit. In October of 2018 that suit was eventually dismissed with the court unable to find convincing evidence that such a partnership ever existed.

As part of the dismissal the four musicians were also ordered to cover 1.3 million kronor (roughly $145,000 USD) of Forge‘s legal fees. Another wrinkle followed soon after with the four then requesting a new trial after finding out that the judge presiding over the original trial, Henrik Ibold, and Forge are members of the same branch of the Swedish Order Of Freemasons.

They viewed that as a conflict of interest on Ibold‘s part, however Ibold was eventually cleared this past February of any potential wrongdoing following an investigation of any alleged bias towards Forge.

With that out of the way the four former members of the band were free to request a retrial before the Swedish court of appeals. That leads us up to now, where it has now been revealed that request for an appeal will be heard in a Jönköping, Sweden court in March of 2020.

Meanwhile, it’s also being reported in Swedish media that Forge has filed for a cross-appeal in the original case ruling, seeking that the four ex-members cover the full cost of his reported 2 million kronor legal fees, as opposed to the 1.3 million kronor he was awarded.