Opening statements are delivered in a $40 billion civil trial that pits Michael Jackson's family against the organizers of a musical comeback that never happened.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 29, 2013) (REUTERS) -  Almost four years after his shocking death, the bizarre life and demise ofMichael Jackson will play out again in a $40 billion civil trial that pits the singer's family against the organizers of a musical comeback that never happened.

The lawsuit, brought by Jackson's elderly mother Katherine on behalf of the singer's three children, alleges that privately-held AEG Live was negligent in hiring the physician convicted in 2011 of his involuntary manslaughter to care for the singer while he rehearsed for the series of 50 shows.

Thomas Mesereau, an attorney who once represented Michael Jackson in a molestation trial, said evidence in this case supports Katherine Jackson's claim.

"I think it's an uphill battle for the defense. I think those e-mails are very, very damaging to the defense. They acknowledge they are paying Conrad Murray. They are putting pressure on Conrad Murray to make him perform. I think they had a contract under California law and I think the sympathy and the momentum is going to be with Katherine Jackson and Michael's children," Mesereau said in an interview outside the Los Angeles County courthouse.

Jackson, 50, drowning in debt and seeking to rebuild a reputation damaged by his 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation charges, died in Los Angeles of an overdose of the powerful surgical anesthetic propofol and a cocktail of other sedatives in June 2009.

His personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, is serving a four-year prison sentence after being found criminally negligent by administering propofol to Jackson as a sleep aid.