The United States District Court of Connecticut has officially brought the concussion-related lawsuit against WWE to a close. This took place around a week ago, bringing to an end a situation which could’ve been much worse for the company. It’s not like they haven’t been faced with a situation like this before, but it seems as if there’s no real validity to these claims in the eyes of the law.
This action having come before the Court on World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.’s (WWE) motion for judgment on the pleadings (Dkt. #205), motion to dismiss the first amended complaint (Dkt. #266), defendant Vincent K. McMahon’s motion to dismiss Counts II, XVIII, and XIX of plaintiffs’ first amended complaint (Dkt. #269), and defendants’ motion for sanctions (Dkt. #262) regarding the first amended complaint before the Honorable Vanessa L. Bryant, United States District Judge; and The Court having previously dismissed plaintiffs Russ McCullough, Ryan Sakoda and Matthew Robert Wiese on March 21, 2016, and defendant Various John Doe’s on March 22, 2016; and having granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the pleadings as to Evan Singleton and Vito LoGrasso on March 28, 2018; and The Court having considered the full record of the case including applicable principles of law and having issued a memorandum of decision on September 17, 2018, granting WWE’s motion for judgment on the pleadings for declaratory judgment to enter as to James Ware and Thomas Billington; dismissing the action against Robert Windham and Oreal Perras without prejudice to reopening; granting defendants’ motions to dismiss; and granting in part defendants’ motion for sanctions to the extent it sought attorney’s fees and costs; it is therefore ORDERED, ADJUDGED and DECREED that declaratory judgment is entered in favor of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. as to Ware and Billington; that judgment is entered for World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. as to Evan Singleton and Vito LoGrasso; and judgment is entered for World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. and Vincent K. McMahon as to Joseph M. Laurinaitis, Carole M. Snuka on behalf of Estate of James W. Snuka, Paul Orndorff, Salavador Guerrero IV, Kelli Fujiwara Sloan on behalf of Estate of Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara, Bryan Emmett Clark, Jr., Anthony Norris, James Harris, Dave Hebner, Earl Hebner, Chris Pallies, Ken Patera, Terry Michael Brunk, Barry Darsow, Bill Eadie, John Nord, Jonathan Hugger, James Brunzell, Susan Green, Angelo Mosca, James Manley, Michael “Mike” Enos, Bruce “Butch” Reed, Carlene B. Moore-Begnaud, Sylvain Grenier, Omar Mijares, Don Leo Heaton, Troy Martin, Marc Copani, Mark Canterbury, Victoria Otis, Judy Hardee, Mark Jindrak, Gayle Schecter on behalf of Estate of Jon Rechner, Barbara Marie Leydig & Bernard Knighton as co-representatives of Estate of Brian Knighton, Marty Jannetty, Jon Heidenreich, Terry Szopinski, Sione Havea Vailahi, Larry Oliver, Bobbi Billard, Ashley Massaro, Perry Satullo, David Silva, John Jeter, Charles Bernard Scaggs, Charles Wicks, Shirley Fellows on behalf of Estate of Timothy Alan Smith, Tracy Smothers, Michael R Halac, Rick Jones, Ken Johnson, George Gray, Ferrin Jesse Barr, Lou Marconi, Rod Price, Donald Driggers, Rodney Begnaud, Ronald Scott Heard on behalf of Estate of Ronald Heard, and Boris Zhukov.
