Avicii's Former Manager Wins Appeal in Lawsuit Against Estate

The Svea Court of Appeal has overturned a Stockholm District Court's dismissal of Ash Pournouri's lawsuit against the estate of Avicii, born Tim Bergling. The appellate court found that Judge Linda Rantén failed to properly evaluate the claims before throwing them out in March, and has sent the case back for a new hearing.

The Procedural Error

According to the appeal ruling, the district court lacked the basis to rule on the admissibility of the declaratory action without first giving Pournouri the opportunity to clarify his claim and without clarifying the defendants' defense within the framework of a trial. The appellate court concluded that a procedural error had occurred.

Pournouri told Billboard that his claim was publicly characterized as unfounded and the case as lost. He noted that the Svea Court of Appeal has now found the dismissal was a procedural error and overturned it, and that the decision is final and cannot be appealed.

The Original Claims

Pournouri sued the estate in December, alleging its operators breached a non-disparagement clause in the 2016 contract that ended his eight-year management relationship with Bergling. He challenged what he characterized as a distorted public narrative about his role in the DJ's death by suicide, arguing that he was subjected to character assassination in the 2017 Netflix documentary Avicii: True Stories and in two subsequent authorized biographies.

According to Pournouri, those projects falsely suggested he drove Bergling to suicide by overworking him and pressuring him to keep performing through mental and physical health struggles.

Separate Defamation Case

Separately, Pournouri sued True Stories director Levan Tsikurishvili for defamation last year. A Stockholm court acquitted Tsikurishvili of gross defamation in June, as first reported by Expressen.

The case now returns to Stockholm District Court for a new hearing on the merits of Pournouri's breach-of-contract claims.