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Alleged Jackson victims Robson, l., and Safechuck

Photo: Taylor Jewell / AP Photo / picture alliance

Americans Wade Robson, 40, and James Safechuck, 45, claim that Michael Jackson abused them for years in the late eighties and early nineties when they were still children. At that time, the two boys lived on the »Neverland« ranch of the pop superstar ("Thriller") in California, who died in 2009. Her allegations were addressed in the 2019 documentary "Leaving Neverland," which Jackson's family described as a "public lynching" at the time.

A California appeals court has now ruled that Robson and Safechuck can bring their previously blocked civil lawsuits against two of the singer's production companies back to court. This was reported over the weekend by several US media as well as the BBC and the British "Guardian", referring to court documents from Friday. The alleged victims claim that the companies had a responsibility to protect them from Jackson's assaults.

Robson and Safechuck had lawsuits in 2013 and 2014 against MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, Jackson's production companies owned by him at the time of his death. The lawsuits were initially dismissed in 2017 because the cases were time-barred. But in 2020, a new California law extended the statute of limitations for survivors who were children at the time of the abuse, allowing both cases to be reopened.

However, in 2020 and 2021, a judge in Los Angeles again dismissed the lawsuits, ruling that the companies had "no legal option" to control Jackson because he was the sole owner of the companies.

On Friday, however, the Court of Appeals ruled otherwise, ruling "that a company that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not exempt from the duty to protect those children just because it is in the sole possession of the abuser."

"It would be perverse not to establish a duty just because the defendant company has only one shareholder," the court said. "That's why we're overturning the judgments in favor of the societies."

Vince Finaldi, an attorney for Safechuck and Robson, said, according to the BBC, that the court had overturned previous "erroneous judgments in these cases that violated California law." Had they endured, a dangerous precedent would have been set that would have put children at risk, Finaldi said. Jonathan Steinsapir, an attorney for Jackson's estate, said he was "fully convinced" that Jackson was innocent and that the allegations were "contrary to all credible evidence and independent confirmation."

Jackson's former tour promoter, Marcel Avram, told the dpa news agency after the decision: "I was the promoter and producer on all of Michael Jackson's world tours. Michael is dead. The genius lives on. We should finally let the man rest in peace."

In »Leaving Neverland«, Robson and Safechuck told for the first time how the »King of Pop« allegedly sexually abused them. The abuse began when he was seven, Robson says in the documentary. It describes how Jackson systematically approached the children, eventually sleeping with them in a room and later rejecting time. The publication of the allegations in the middle of the #MeToo movement sparked a debate about Jackson's legacy.

During his lifetime, the eccentric singer faced two investigations into allegations of child sexual abuse. In 1994, the charges were dropped after the alleged main victim decided not to testify. Jackson reached a $20 million settlement with the boy's family. In 2005, Jackson was acquitted by a jury in California of child abuse and serving alcohol to minors.

It remains to be seen whether Jackson's probate lawyers will now turn to the Supreme Court in California to overturn the judge's verdict again.

bor/dpa