Two men who alleged that Michael Jackson sexually abused them when they were children can sue two corporate entities tied to the late singer’s estate, a state appeals court unanimously ruled Friday.
A three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal overturned April 2021 rulings by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Mark Young, who concluded that Wade Robson and James Safechuck could not sue MJJ Productions Inc. or MJJ Ventures Inc.. Lawyers for the firms maintained the corporations had no obligations to protect the plaintiffs from Jackson because of their structure with the late singer as the only shareholder and the firms’ inability to control any alleged actions by the performer against the pair.
“We conclude a corporation that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not excused from an affirmative duty to protect those children merely because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse,” Justice Elizabeth A. Grimes wrote for the court.
In his concurring opinion, Justice John Shepard Wiley Jr. called Jackson the “puppetmaster of his two wholly owned corporations” and said the singer could have taken cost-effective steps to avoid the harm the plaintiffs allege he inflicted upon them.
“Jackson could have restrained himself,” Wiley wrote. “From a social standpoint, this harm avoidance would have been costless. It merely required law-abiding self-control, which the law expects of every person.”
The Emmy Award-winning documentary “Leaving Neverland,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019, included detailed descriptions by Safechuck and Robson about the abuse they claim Jackson inflicted on them at his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County.
Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at age 50 of acute propofol intoxication.