A Swedish appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit brought against Avicii’s estate by the late DJ’s longtime manager, Arash “Ash” Pournouri, over his portrayal in books and a documentary as a “manipulative slavedriver.”  

The ruling out of the Svea Court of Appeal, dated May 25 and obtained by Billboard, says a Stockholm District Court judge did not perform a proper evaluation before dismissing Pournouri’s claims against the heirs of Avicii (Tim Bergling) earlier this year. The appellate court sent the case back to the District Court for a new hearing.

Pournouri sued the estate of the late dance music icon in December, alleging they’d violated a non-disparagement clause in the 2016 contract that ended his eight-year management relationship with Avicii. He claimed Avicii’s heirs subjected him to “character assassination” in the 2017 Netflix documentary Avicii: True Stories, as well as in two authorized biographies published after the DJ’s death by suicide in 2018.

According to Pournouri, these projects falsely suggested that he drove Avicii to suicide by overworking him and pressuring the star to keep performing despite mental and physical health struggles. Pournouri said the opposite was true: “In fact, Ash was very positive about Tim’s decision to stop touring and saw it as a much needed and welcome turning point,” read the manager’s lawsuit.

In March, Judge Linda Rantén dismissed Pournouri’s lawsuit after determining that he had not met the technical requirements to seek a declaratory judgment regarding a breach of the 2016 termination agreement. But on appeal, the higher court said a deeper analysis was required before that conclusion could be reached.

“The district court did not have the basis to — without first giving the appellants the opportunity to clarify their claim and without having clarified the defendants’ defense within the framework of a trial — take a position on the admissibility of the declaratory action,” reads the appeal ruling, translated from Swedish by the service DeepL. “Consequently, a procedural error occurred in the District Court.”

In a statement to Billboard on Thursday (June 18), Pournouri said, “My claim was publicly characterized as unfounded and the case as lost. The Svea Court of Appeal has now found that the dismissal was a procedural error and overturned it. The decision is final and cannot be appealed.”

A rep for the Avicii estate declined to comment on Thursday. In a previous statement when the case was initially dismissed, Avicii’s father, Klas Bergling, said, “I just want to say how sad it is to see Tim’s name used in this context.”

“This process has raised strong emotions and a lot of discomfort for me and Tim’s mother Anki,” added Klas at the time. “At the same time, we cannot understand Arash. We have said it several times since 2018, also in public: neither I nor Tim’s mother have ever blamed Arash for Tim’s suicide.”

Separately from the case against Avicii’s estate, Pournouri also sued True Stories director Levan Tsikurishvili for defamation last year. That lawsuit was dismissed due to insufficient evidence earlier this month, according to Swedish newspaper Expressen.

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