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As you might know Robson has two cases against MJ Estate, one of them is a creditor’s claim filed at probate court and second one is a civil case. Below includes updates and information about both cases.
Probate case: Robson is asking to be allowed to file a late creditor claim (9103 motion). Estate opposed to it. Summary judgment motion is pending. Estate says if late filing of creditor claim is granted, they would likely deny the creditor’s claim and Robson said if that’s the case he would add Executors as Doe 4 and Doe 5 in his civil trial. It’s stated that the 9103 petition will be tried in court in February 2015.
Civil case: Estate has filed two demurrers (dismissal request stating there’s no legal basis for a lawsuit); both are pending with a hearing set for October 2014. Executors may file additional demurrers.
There is a scheduling issue in regards to the trial. Robson proposed the trial to start at June 2015. Estate objects to it and states it’s too early to set a trial date based on the following:
- Probate late filing petition (9103) isn’t being tried until February 2015. Assuming late filing of creditor’s claim is denied (either by court or Estate) and Estate is added to the civil trial between February and June (2015) they won’t have enough time to respond to complaint, file demurrer, file motions, take discovery, respond to discovery and find experts.
- Estate is also opposing to possibly dividing the case and trying defendants separately.
Robson has served several hundred interrogatories (over the limit of 35) and these requests are subject to protective order. Estate states most interrogatories are about MJ’s alleged personal and private conduct and they have no information. Robson lawyers refuse Estate’s request to meet and confer about interrogatories.
Below : One of Weitzman's comments about Robson that could be found in the documents
DOE 1 (MJ) Demurrer:
As reported previously by media, Estate has filed a demurrer to dismiss MJ as Doe 1 defendant on the civil case simply arguing Doe1 / MJ is deceased and no court has jurisdiction to have a case or have power to enter judgment against him. Simply put court has no jurisdiction over a deceased person.
Corporate defendants Demurrer:
MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures have been added as Doe 2 and Doe 3 defendants to Robson’s complaint and the only claim against these corporate entities is childhood abuse. Robson claimed these corporate entities are liable for the alleged abuse of Robson by MJ.
Estate states :
- Corporate entities aren’t persons and they cannot engage in childhood abuse. Such abuse claims can only be made against natural persons and not entities.
- Any claims about corporate entities cannot be filed after plaintiff’s 26th birthday. (Wade was 30 when he filed the lawsuit)
- The only exception to the above rule is when corporate entities have special relationship with the perpetrator, had control and could have prevented the abuse. It requires the corporate entities to know or had reason to know there was an unlawful sexual conduct by their employee, agent, representative and failed to take reasonable safeguards from preventing it. Estate states Robson’s own claim argues the opposite, Robson's complaint states that the corporate defendants were controlled by MJ and thefore Estate argues corporate entities had no ability to control their owner (MJ).
Robson Motion to compel about Subpoena’s related to 2005 trial.
In the civil trial the main issue seems to be about information from Neverland Search. Robson has asked law enforcement to give him any information they have found during Neverland raid. Estate has opposed to that. In Estate’s emails they also mention MJ’s kids were residents at Neverland Ranch during 2005 search and they (their legal guardians) should been served notices as well and given chance to respond.
This document also tells us
- Robson served 36 subpoenas to get witness statements from 2005 trial and 11 from 1993 investigation.
- Estate has been trying to block ALL of Robson’s discovery requests in both probate and civil case. In probate case Estate filed a motion to quash and Robson objected. It’s still pending.
- Estate stated Robson did not serve notice to all the parties in the criminal investigation.
Hearings for both demurrer and motion to compel are set for October 2014.
A comment about Robson supporters reporting to the developments
Some Wade Robson supporters have recently been reporting brief updates from this case focusing only on a part of a single document and ignoring all the rest of the documents. It’s no surprise that these people conveniently do not mention Estate’s two demurrer requests.
The document Robson supporters refer to is a “case management statement” which both parties need to complete. This document helps the court to see where each party stands and to plan for the future. In the case management statement Estate has checked the box for ADR (alternative dispute resolution) which includes mediation, settlement, arbitration etc.
Robson supporters claim “Estate has said they are happy to have a settlement conference over the civil claim, however Wade has asked for a jury trial”
This statement is wrong in many aspects. First of all Estate hasn’t said they are “happy”, well they haven’t really “said” anything in regard to their emotional state, they merely put a check mark to some alternative dispute resolutions which the document clearly labels as “willing to participate”. The document continued on to say no mediation or settlement has happened or even scheduled. (Note: To save time and resources courts actively encourage alternative resolution methods. However this doesn’t mean such methods will be used or even used will come to a conclusion of the matter at hand.)
Secondly Estate also requested a jury trial (see item 5) and furthermore estimated a trial date of 7 to 14 days (see item 7) so it’s quite self-serving for these Robson supporters to act like Robson is the only party that asked for a jury trial. It simply isn’t the truth.
Estate isn’t walking around “happy” to talk settlement, to the contrary on both probate and civil trial filing summary judgments and demurrers to dismiss Robson’s claims and objecting any and all requests by Robson.