Ring Boys Scandal Lawsuit Against WWE, TKO, Vince McMahon, & Linda McMahon Update – WWE, Vince & Linda McMahon Refile Motions Seeking to Throw Out Lawsuit

As noted before, a lawsuit was filed this past October against WWE, WWE’s parent company TKO Group, former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, and Linda McMahon on behalf of the survivors of the infamous WWE Ring Boys scandal in 1992. Additional survivors recently joined as plaintiffs for the lawsuit following the Maryland Supreme Court upholding the Maryland Child Victims Act as being constitutional this past February. More survivors joined as plaintiffs this past April and filed new additional allegations.

Post Wrestling and Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that WWE and Vince and Linda McMahon filed motions on June 11th asking a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss the case against them.

In their filings, WWE and the McMahons claimed that these allegations should not be litigated in Maryland and they never owed a legal duty to the eight plaintiffs. WWE’s attorneys argued that the plantiffs have not laid the legal groundwork to show TKO actually bears any legal responsibility for what happened in the 1980s.

Thurston reported that attorneys for the former WWE ring biys will have until July 28th to file their responses to the motions and the defendats will have another chance to file another motions to fortigy their arguments by August 27th.

In their filings, WWE and the McMahons stated that they do not reside in Maryland and neither do any of the plaintiffs for their arguments why the Maryland courts lack the legal jurisdiction for the lawsuit case. The defendants also take issue with their claims of the lack of specific accounts of abuse within the state of Maryland and brought up Doe 3’s claims of abuse that do no specify Maryland but a variety of states instead.

In their filings, WWE and the McMahons argued that even thought some of the alleged abuse happened in Maryland, that is not enough to justify continuing the case in the state. WWE and the McMahon also argued that just holding wrestling events in the state or having employees travel through it does not establish the kind of legal connection needed for this lawsuit to be properly litigated in Maryland.

In the filings, WWE and the McMahons also claimed that they had no legal obligation to protect the plaintiffs due to them not being actual employees of the company nor were they paid by the company. Thurston reported that the plaintiffs claimed in their lawsuit that they were sometimes paid in cash and other times they received things like food, merchandise, and lodging in exchange for their work on the ring crew.

WWE’s attorneys also argued that if there was any duty of care by the company, any of the alleged abuses by Phillips took place outside of his job duties and claimed that would not make the company liable. WWE’s attorneys also claimed that Phillips was not an actual employee of the company.

In their filing, TKO’s attorneys argued that the plantiffs haven’t identified a legal explanation that supports the notion that TKO should be held responsible for actions by the old WWF.