Businessman Can’t Get No Satisfaction, Sues Jagger

James R. Converse Jr. grew up with a generation that rocked to the Rolling Stones, but his lawyer says the Newport Beach man is now singing the blues as he takes Mick Jagger to court.

Business, the lawyer pointed out, is business.

Converse filed suit Thursday in federal court in Santa Ana, claiming that the legendary rocker Jagger stiffed him out of about $10,000 last year. Converse says he was owed the money for an artificial waterfall and stream that he installed at Jagger’s West Indies home.

The way Converse figures it, Jagger still owes him for 22 days of work at $375 a day at the home in Mustique, St. Vincent Island, plus expenses and materials.

Converse says Jagger paid his company, a Newport Beach landscaping firm named Encon, about $17,000 in advance toward the cost of the waterfall. But Converse says he has never seen a penny of the remainder.

Lawyers for Jagger weren’t available Friday to give his side of the tale, but one official close to the Stones’ lead singer said: “It sounds like a nuisance suit to me, but we haven’t heard about it.”

A man who answered the phone at Jagger’s home and identified himself as the house manager would not talk about the suit, saying: “I have no information. I know nothing.”

Converse’s attorney, William D. Evans of Long Beach, said that his client made several trips to Jagger’s home in the West Indies to finish the waterfall project, and “they were quite delighted with the product.” But for one reason or another, Evans claimed, the balance of the payment never came, and follow-up requests proved fruitless.

Converse, in his mid-30s, confesses to being a fan of the Rolling Stones, Evans said. But “suing Mick Jagger is no different than suing anyone else,” the attorney observed. “This is strictly a business thing.”