On Monday, a Los Angeles judge ruled to dismiss a 2013 lawsuit brought against two of Michael Jackson’s entertainment companies by now-38-year-old choreographer Wade Robson, Fox News reports.
In the lawsuit, Robson alleged that “Jackson’s companies MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures failed in their duty to protect him when they hired him from Australia to work with the star.”
“There is no evidence supporting plaintiff’s contention that defendants exercised control over Jackson,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young wrote in his decision to dismiss the suit. “The evidence further demonstrates that defendants had no legal ability to control Jackson, because Jackson had complete and total ownership of the corporate defendants.”
Back in December 2020, the Michael Jackson estate’s request to send the HBO disparagement dispute regarding Leaving Neverland to arbitration was granted. The highly controversial documentary accused Jackson of sexually abusing Robson and actor James Safechuck when they were young boys.
More on the 2013 lawsuit from Fox News:
His lawsuit alleged that Jackson molested him over a seven-year period, and that as Jackson’s employee, the two corporations Jackson had started had a duty to protect him the same way the Boy Scouts or a school would need to protect children from their leaders. But the judge found the corporations were merely legal entities that were controlled by Jackson, not organizations that could control him.
Another judge previously dismissed the lawsuits by Robson and Safechuck in 2017, finding the statute of limitations had expired. But an appeals court revived the legal actions in 2019 after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law giving those who allege childhood sexual abuse longer to file lawsuits.
“Wade Robson has spent the last 8 years pursuing frivolous claims in different lawsuits against Michael Jackson’s estate and companies associated with it,” Jackson estate attorney Jonathan Steinsapir said in a statement following Judge Young’s ruling. “Yet a judge has once again ruled that Robson’s claims have no merit whatsoever, that no trial is necessary.”
Robson’s and Safechuck’s attorney Vince Finaldi says the court decision to dismiss the 2013 lawsuit has “fatal flaws” and plans to appeal.
“If allowed to stand, the decision would set a dangerous precedent that would leave thousands of children working in the entertainment industry vulnerable to sexual abuse by persons in places of power,” Finaldi said.