LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A California appeals court has ruled that two companies wholly owned by the late Michael Jackson can be held liable for sexual assault of children allegedly committed by him.
The Second Appellate District on Aug. 18 overturned a Los Angeles judge's decision in favor of MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, who argued they couldn't be liable for Jackson's actions because of their corporate structures.
The companies said they had no ability to control Jackson or his interactions with plaintiffs like James Safechuck and Wade Robson who alleged Jackson sexually abused them.
The Second District cited a Fifth District ruling from 2021 in a lawsuit against USA Taekwondo.
"(W)e conclude a corporation that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not excused from its affirmative duty to protect those children merely because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse," the Second District said.
"The corporations say these are 'idiosyncratic circumstances,' and perhaps they are. There is certainly no comparable case law to recite. But it would be perverse to find no duty based on the corporate defendant having only one shareholder."
Safechuck was hired to work on a Pepsi commercial in 1986-87, when he was 9 years old. In 1988, Jackson took him to a Pepsi convention in Hawaii and asked Safechuck to sleep in his room, but Safechuck's mother wouldn't allow it.
Safechuck and his mother spent six months with Jackson that year while Jackson toured.
"The first incident of sexual abuse occurred in June 1988, during this six-month tour," the decision says. "In Jackson's hotel room in Paris, Jackson told plaintiff he 'was going to change Plaintiff's life by showing him how to masturbate.'
"Jackson demonstrated on himself, and then made plaintiff try."
The decision says Jackso abused Safecchuck hundreds of times over the next four years. An MJJ Productions employee witnessed suspicious activity like Jackson's and Safechuck's underwear next to Jackson's bed. He also saw Jackson put his hand down Safechuck's shorts while the two were in jacuzzi.
Robson also alleged sexual abuse by Jackson that started when he was 7 years old and continued until he was 14. Robson had won a dance contest and met Jackson, then three years later, Jackson's personal assistant at MJJ Productions invited him to Neverland Ranch.
The Second District's ruling will give these plaintiffs a chance to prove MJJ employees facilitated and could have put a stop to the abuse.
"Employees of defendants witnessed the sexual abuse of Robson or circumstances suggesting sexual abuse," the decision says.
"Defendants' security guard, Charli Michaels, saw Jackson put his hand on Robson's crotch area while they were on the amusement park rides at the Neverland Ranch.
"On another occasion, she saw Jackson holding Robson's genitals in the dance studio at the ranch.
"Defendants' security staff joked that Jackson did not have any girlfriends 'because he likes little boys. He likes little white butts.'"