Flo Rida wins court appeal against Australian concert promoter

Rapper Flo Rida has avoided paying around $417,345 in damages to an Australian concert promoter after a judge upheld his appeal against a breach of contract case.

The Birthday hitmaker, real name Tramar Dillard, was sued for failing to perform at the Fat As Butter music festival in 2011 after receiving a fee of around $55,000 .

Promoters of the show, Mothership Music, sued Dillard and his management team, but were forced to file a court summons via Facebook.com when he allegedly failed to respond to them.

An initial ruling went in favor of the promoters after the hip-hop star failed to show up for a scheduled court date, but he challenged the decision in June (13) and a New South Wales judge upheld his appeal on Tuesday (20Aug13).

The judge declared Facebook was not an appropriate channel to file the court summons through because there was no evidence the rapper was connected to the page.

Justice Robert McFarlan said, "The evidence did not establish, other than by mere assertion, that the Facebook page was in fact that of Flo Rida and did not prove that a posting on it was likely to come to his attention in a timely fashion."