NEW YORK, Feb 8 (AFP) - Pop princess Britney Spears is suing eight insurance firms -- seven of them British -- after they rejected a nearly 10 million-dollar claim resulting from the cancellation of her summer tour last year.
The Onyx Hotel Tour, taking in the the United States, Canada and Europe, had to be called off after Spears injured her knee during a video shoot and had to undergo surgery.
The insurance firms -- seven British and one French -- rejected her 9.8 million-dollar claim, arguing that the pop star had concealed a previous knee injury from them.
In the lawsuit, filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court and made public Tuesday, Spears contended that not mentioning "minor" knee surgery she underwent in 1999 had been an "innocent omission" that had no bearing on her later injury.
The suit also noted that Spears's policies were in full effect when she hurt her left knee on June 8 in New York while shooting a video for her single "Outrageous."
Spears cancelled her tour on June 15 after undergoing surgery.
The British insurers named in the lawsuit are Liberty Syndicate Management Ltd, Beazley Furlonge Ltd., Great Lakes Reinsurance UK Plc, QBE International Insurance Ltd., Markel Corp's Markel International Ltd, Talbot Underwriting Ltd and SR International Business.
The French insurer is AXA's AXA Corporate Solutions.
02/08/2005 15:04 GMT - AFP