Michael Jackson harassment claims regain momentum, appeals court greenlights

In a recent ruling, judges at US court have granted permission to Wade Robson and James Safechuck to revive their lawsuit against Michael Jackson's companies. 

The two men allege that Jackson s******* abused them during their childhood years and assert that Michael Jackson's companies bore a responsibility to protect them.

Wade Robson and James Safechuck claim that the abuse took place during the late 1980s and early 1990s while they were staying at Jackson's Neverland ranch. It's worth noting that Jackson's legal team continues to assert his innocence.

These allegations gained widespread attention when they were featured in the 2019 documentary "Leaving Neverland," a production that Jackson's family vehemently criticized as a "public lynching."

In 2020, a judge in Los Angeles made a crucial decision that James Safechuck could not pursue a lawsuit against Michael Jackson's businesses, arguing that these companies did not owe Safechuck a duty of care. A year later, the same judge ruled similarly in Wade Robson's case. 

However, a recent development on Friday saw an appeals court in California challenging these rulings.

The appeals court's verdict stated that "a corporation that facilitates the s**ual abuse of children by one of its employees is not excused from an affirmative duty to protect those children merely because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse." 

The judgement continued, highlighting the potential dangers of not imposing such a duty: "It would be perverse to find no duty based on the corporate defendant having only one shareholder." 

As a result, the court overturned the previous judgements in favor of the corporations.