Safechuck v. MJJ Productions, Inc.

Filed 1/3/20 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

JAMES SAFECHUCK, B284613

Plaintiff and Appellant, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC545264) v.

MJJ PRODUCTIONS, INC., et al.,

Defendant and Respondent. WADE ROBSON, B288036

Plaintiff and Appellant, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC508502) v.

MJJ PRODUCTIONS, INC., et al.,

Defendant and Respondent.

APPEAL from judgments of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Mitchell L. Beckloff, Judge. Reversed and remanded. Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, John C. Manly, Vince W. Finaldi, Alexander E. Cunny; Esner, Chang & Boyer, Holly N. Boyer and Steffi A. Jose for Plaintiffs and Appellants. Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert, Howard L.

Weitzman, Jonathan P. Steinsapir, Aaron C. Liskin, Katherine T. Kleindienst; Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland and Alana H. Rotter for Defendants and Respondents. _____________________________

These appeals involve allegations of a disturbing, years- long pattern of child sexual abuse by international superstar Michael Jackson. The truth of those allegations is not at issue here. Instead, we must decide whether plaintiffs Wade Robson and James Safechuck waited too long to sue, not Jackson himself (who died over a decade ago), but two of Jackson’s corporations, MJJ Productions, Inc. and MJJ Ventures, Inc., for their involvement in Jackson’s alleged abuse of Robson and Safechuck. This timeliness issue had been litigated under a prior version of Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1 (section 340.1) that required claims of childhood sexual abuse against third- party nonperpetrators to be filed by a victim’s 26th birthday unless the claims fell within a narrow exception. Robson and Safechuck sued after their 26th birthdays, and the trial court concluded their claims were untimely because they did not fall within this exception. Effective January 1, 2020, however, section 340.1 was amended to allow a victim to bring claims of childhood sexual assault against third-party nonperpetrators until the victim’s 40th birthday. (§ 340.1, as amended by Stats 2019, Ch. 861, §1.) Safechuck and Robson both sued before their 40th birthdays, and the corporations do not dispute the revised statute applies to their nonfinal cases. We reverse the judgments in the corporations’ favor and remand for further proceedings. We decline to address any other issues.