Lawsuit nerves put Jacko in hospital

Singer Michael Jackson was briefly admitted to hospital in Indianapolis after falling ill on the same day he was scheduled to give a deposition in a copyright lawsuit.

Jackson was admitted yesterday for observation and treatment before the deposition began, said Brian Oxman, a lawyer for the Jackson family.

The signer was released after a couple of hours and boarded a private jet to return to Los Angeles, said Jackson spokesman Stuart Backerman.

Jackson, 44, “was not feeling well and was feeling weak,” Oxman said.

“He has, in some occasions in the past, not eaten when he should,” Oxman said. “He can become very concerned and nervous at depositions. He doesn’t like lawsuits, and it makes him ill to have to cope with litigation that people seem to heap on him.”

Jackson arrived in Indianapolis on Tuesday for a deposition in a lawsuit alleging that the Jackson Five used the name of another band and two of their songs without license.

The deposition was to be given in a meeting with lawyer Norman Reed, who is representing Gordon Keith, the man who signed the Jackson Five to his Steeltown Records in 1967. Keith has said he received no credit for tracks that appeared on a 1996 album, “Pre-History: The Lost Steeltown Recordings.”

Keith and musician Elvy Woodard, accuse Michael, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon Jackson of infringing on the trade name Ripples & Waves, which was the name of another band in their home town, Gary, Indiana, during the 1960s.