TPM Reader LA gives us more details on that suit against WWE and senate candidate Linda McMahon brought by the widow of Owen Hart, the wrestler killed in the WWE accident in 1999 …
The complaint is up and posted here. It appears actually to be much worse than your blurb of it. Not only are they using him without her permission (and rights apparently reverted, under his contract, at the time of his death, to his estate), but *they haven’t paid the estate for the stuff they haven’t gotten permission for*– meaning that they’re in breach of even their interpretation of the contract.
(Which is attached to the complaint, and is fascinating– who knew that a top tier WWE wrestler only makes $250k a year? The lawyer who drafted the complaint for white-shoe Nixon Peabody probably makes a good two thirds of that or more. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of money, and way more than I make, but that’s less than the *minimum* rookie salary for any of the big four sports in this country: baseball, NFL football, basketball, or hockey, and Owen Hart had been around for such a number of years that this non-wrestling fan had heard of him before his death.)
$18 million is a freaking enormous wrongful death settlement. *Enormous*– in the top 1% of all personal injury cases in the USA. (Most of the really big personal injury settlements and verdicts come out of cases where people survive. Missed salary plays a large part of calculations, but you fall behind numerically in wrongful death cases compared to a case where a person needs nursing care for a number of years or a series of operations) There’s some serious concerns about wrongdoing coming out with that kind of number– I mean, it’s hard to put a number on a father and spouse not being there, but that’s *72 years* of his salary, and he was a 34 year old guy who could have wrestled for what, 10-15 more years? It strikes me as the sort of number you come up with when you don’t want things to come out in court.
(My only question is that if not using his image was important to her, why she didn’t have it written into the wrongful death settlement.)
Late Update: Here’s yet more on the original wrongful death settlement. Turns out the cable used to suspend Hart up in the air was only meant for yacht racing. Perhaps from this yacht? Remind me never to let the McMahons suspend me a hundred feet in the air over a wrestling ring.
Later Update: TPM Reader AB responds …
I just wanted to respond to LA’s comment about the size of the wrongful death settlement in the Owen Hart case. The number is certainly large. But I don’t consider it that eyebrow raising. Certainly not enough to think there was any ulterior motive at play other than the typical motive of making a lawsuit that would create terribly publicity go away.
It’s not clear where the Hart’s wrongful death claim was filed. If it was Connecticut, that State happens to have a very generous wrongful death statute. see: http://www.wilsonelser.com/files/repository/CTwrongfuldeath_Spring2004.pdf The “loss of life’s pleasures”, etc. for the lost years of life expectancy is something that isn’t permitted in many other states. Given Hart’s age, that would provide substantial exposure to the defendant. As far as lost earning capacity, the $250k was apparently base salary. He also got a cut of merchandising, marketing, etc. If I recall correctly, this was a time when professional wresting was at the pinnacle of its marketing regime (with action figures, video games, etc) and I’m assuming Owen Hart was particularly marketable.
The bottom-line is that I see this as typically sleazy business behavior. Shocking, I know, coming from pro wrestling. But I don’t think there’s as much there as LA does.
Finally, you should know that that Complaint was quite obviously drafted with an eye toward having it recited in the press. Federal Court only requires “notice pleading”, meaning much less factual detail is necessary in Complaints. This Complaint was written as much as a propaganda device as a legal pleading. I’m not saying that like it’s a bad thing, I’ve drafted plenty Complaints like that myself. It’s just worth noting.
