They Just Won't Let Owen Hart RIP

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Judge raises issue of fraud in suit over wrestler's death

By DAN MARGOLIES

The Kansas City Star

 

A Missouri judge has found evidence that a prominent local law firm may have committed fraud in a case stemming from the 1999 death of professional wrestler Owen Hart.

 

In an order issued Friday, Circuit Judge Douglas E. Long Jr. ruled that there was "overwhelming evidence" that Hart's family "and/or its counsel" -- the law firm of Robb & Robb -- "engaged in fraud, collusion and/or tortious conduct" in connection with a settlement that was reached with one of the defendants.

 

The unusually harsh language, partially directed at one of the most successful personal-injury law firms in Kansas City, is the latest flare-up in a highly contentious case stemming from Hart's accidental death at Kemper Arena in May 1999.

 

Gary Robb denied any wrongdoing on the part of the firm or his client.

 

Although World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. -- formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation -- agreed in November 2000 to pay Hart's family $18 million to settle the lawsuit, the case has dragged on as the WWE sought reimbursement from some of the other original defendants.

 

At issue is the Hart family's dismissal from the case of defendant Lewmar Inc., which made the trigger-latch shackle whose premature release led to Hart's fall and death.

 

The 34-year-old wrestler, one of the WWE's biggest stars, plunged from the rafters of Kemper Arena on May 23, 1999, when the quick release on his harness opened as he was being lowered into the ring.

 

The judge's order allows the WWE to sue Lewmar for reimbursement of some or all of the settlement amount. The case has been set for trial in September.

 

Reached Tuesday, Robb & Robb attorney Gary Robb defended the Hart family's dismissal of Lewmar from the case, saying the family believed that the WWE was solely responsible for the accident.

 

"Bear in mind that the decision to settle solely belongs to the client, and we support that decision...," Robb said. "Mrs. Hart felt that Lewmar wasn't at fault even 1 percent."

 

Hart's family filed suit against 13 defendants -- including the WWE, the city of Kansas City and Lewmar -- 13 weeks after Hart's death. The 118-page lawsuit alleged that the stunt was dangerous and poorly planned, and that the harness system was defective. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages in the tens of millions of dollars.

 

About seven months before it settled with the WWE, the Hart family settled with Lewmar and dismissed it from the case. The settlement with Lewmar called for a mutual release of claims but no payment of money by Lewmar, although the WWE noted that Lewmar had nearly $50 million in liability insurance coverage.

 

That settlement prompted the WWE to cry foul, saying in court filings it arose under "highly suspicious circumstances" that raised questions about whether the settlement with Lewmar was reached in good faith.

 

The WWE's protest stemmed from its concern that the settlement would bar the WWE from seeking reimbursement from Lewmar. Missouri law prevents a defendant from seeking reimbursement from a co-defendant if the co-defendant reaches a good-faith settlement with the plaintiffs.

 

Long's order followed an evidentiary hearing in mid-December on that issue. After finding that "significant evidence existed at the time of the settlement tending to establish liability on the part of Lewmar," Long concluded that a jury "more likely than not" would have apportioned to Lewmar "a significant amount of fault for Owen Hart's death."

 

Long's four-page order went on to say that "substantial evidence exists" that "plaintiffs' counsel was motivated by a desire to prevent facts concerning Lewmar's liability for this accident from coming to light in an effort to construct a punitive damages claim against WWE."

 

In theory at least, a punitive damage award against the WWE could have exceeded $50 million.

 

Robb said neither he nor the Hart family were parties to the December hearing, "so we don't know what evidence was or wasn't presented."

 

But he said that even if Lewmar had $1 billion in insurance coverage, Hart's widow, Martha Hart, "wasn't going to take a nickel because she believed the WWE was solely responsible."

 

"I think the evidence that Mrs. Hart relied on to support her decision was more than sufficient, and that's the bottom line," Robb said.

 

Attorneys for the WWE reacted strongly to Long's order.

 

Jerry McDevitt, one of the attorneys, said the order contained "some of the strongest statements I've ever seen in my 22 years of practice about the manner in which this case was handled."

 

Another WWE attorney, Craig O'Dear, said: "Our objective is to hold accountable all the entities responsible for the accident. We have believed from day one that Lewmar bears a far greater degree of responsibility for this accident than does the WWE. This ruling simply opens up the door for the case against Lewmar to proceed."

 

Kansas City attorney Paul Wickens, who represents Lewmar, declined to comment. Officials of Lewmar, which is based in England, could not be reached.

 

The city of Kansas City, which owns Kemper Arena, was dismissed from the case as part of the WWE's settlement with the Hart family. The city did not pay any money.

 

Long's ruling comes after two earlier legal squabbles in the case.

 

In the first, the WWE and other defendants accused Robb & Robb of trying to steer the case to a Jackson County judge of its own choosing. (Jackson County cases are supposed to be assigned randomly.) That matter was resolved when the Missouri Supreme Court stepped in and assigned the case to Long, a judge from Waynesville, Mo.

 

Then the defendants protested a side agreement that Robb & Robb asked Hart's 10 siblings to sign. The agreement called for the siblings to share in any damages recovered by their parents in return for the siblings' agreement to cooperate with the plaintiffs -- Hart's widow, two minor children and the parents -- and not to cooperate with the defendants.

 

Because Missouri's wrongful death statute did not allow the siblings to be parties in the case, the WWE claimed in court documents that the agreement amounted to witness tampering. That's because the siblings could have been crucial witnesses as to the question of how many more years Hart had planned to wrestle -- a crucial issue bearing on the amount of lost earnings.

 

Robb & Robb later rescinded the agreement with Hart's siblings.

 

The latest brouhaha, unlike the others, concerns the underlying issues of the case, namely whether and which defendants' negligence contributed to Hart's death.

 

In court documents, the WWE maintains that deposition testimony shows that Lewmar knew its trigger-latch shackle was used for purposes other than its intended use as marine equipment, but did little to prevent its misuse. In fact, the WWE says that Lewmar and its distributors knowingly provided the shackles to the stunt industry for years.

 

Robb & Robb is one of Kansas City's most successful plaintiffs' firms, having won numerous multimillion-dollar judgments or settlements in the years since it was founded in 1984. The firm is essentially a two-person operation consisting of the husband-and-wife team of Gary and Anita Robb.

 

Among the multimillion judgments obtained by the Robbs was a $350 million jury verdict in 1995 -- at the time thought to be one of the biggest product liability verdicts in U.S. history -- against helicopter maker Turbomeca SA of France. An appeals court later reduced the verdict to $30 million.

 

More recently, the Robbs have represented the family of former Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, who was killed in an October 2000 plane crash along with his son, Randy Carnahan, and a top aide, Chris Sifford. The Cessna 335 piloted by Randy Carnahan crashed while the governor was campaigning against then-U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft.

 

Last summer, Cessna Aircraft Co. and its holding company paid $1.6 million to settle the Carnahan family's wrongful death lawsuit. One other defendant remains in the case.

[Guest Choken One]

Well, It never ends does it. Jesus I really am starting to feel bad about WWE and The Hart Family each. Unless I read it wrong, it looks like someone else wants to drag this back to court.

[Guest nikowwf]

The WWE wants to sue the manufacturer of the harness. It was never allowed to do so, because Martha made a side deal with the manufacturer to not blame them to try to get the WWE to have to pay 100% of the damages. I'm not in agreement with all Vince has done with the Owen tragedy, but suing the latch manufacturer for part of the money, which will not affect Martha in the least doesn't seem so bad. Don't take this as they are dragging Martha back to court...it looks like WWE vs. LATCH COMPANY. Martha is NOT INVOLVED.

 

Thats my take on this...

 

niko

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Sounds like Martha is being a fuckhead, IMO. WWE was trying to get the harness manufacturer to participate, which at least makes sense since it's their product that failed. Then Martha let the harness company go off the hook, because she wants to directly take as much money out of Vince's pockets as possible, and I guess having the harness company there softens the blow to WWE.

 

Martha's attorney even said she doesn't blame the harness company a bit.

 

So unless she seriously thinks WWE sabotaged a perfectly working harness intentionally so Owen would fall, they're just trying to extract petty revenge on Vince here.

 

Sorry, but I have to give the big stink-eye to the Harts here. I understand Martha has to raise a family as a single parent, and that's too bad, but very few people in the family have shown any element of class in the past few years.

[LooseCannon25 0]

I agree with you Jobber......The harts have acted classless and tasteless....especially MArtha who seems to me to be a total bitch about everything. I can appreciate the situation she's in, but when the fuck is enough enough. It was dumb to make the side deal with the manufacturing company since it was their fault technically. It's not like Vince cut the damn harness that Owen was dangling from and waved bye bye to him.

[Guest nikowwf]

I wouldn't be too hard on Martha because I think it was a dumb ass thing for her to do (make the side deal with the manfacturer), but remember that at the time she was upset, her husband just died and she blamed the WWE. Maybes its not fair, but its understandable. Its not like she cut this deal yesterday.

 

At the same time, I think the WWE is completely within their rights to go after the manufacturer.

 

Its a lose/lose sucky situation.

 

niko

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Just because she might regret it later or was acting without a clear mind earlier doesn't mean it still wasn't commiting collusion in court. Unless, of course, she really wants to launch some kind of investigation to see if WWE really sabotaged the harness device, and that would take forever and a day before anyone gets any money, so that probably won't happen. Thus, collusion.

 

So now WWE gets to take a piece of the harness people's settlement pie since they're going to be taking the full brunt of the damages. Makes sense.

[Guest dreamer420]

Sounds like Martha is being a fuckhead, IMO. WWE was trying to get the harness manufacturer to participate, which at least makes sense since it's their product that failed. Then Martha let the harness company go off the hook, because she wants to directly take as much money out of Vince's pockets as possible, and I guess having the harness company there softens the blow to WWE.

 

Martha's attorney even said she doesn't blame the harness company a bit.

 

So unless she seriously thinks WWE sabotaged a perfectly working harness intentionally so Owen would fall, they're just trying to extract petty revenge on Vince here.

 

Sorry, but I have to give the big stink-eye to the Harts here. I understand Martha has to raise a family as a single parent, and that's too bad, but very few people in the family have shown any element of class in the past few years.

Easy fella. I wouldn't go and start badmouthing Martha Hart here. If you have read her book you would know that she had her own private investigators looking into the accident and while she did have a number of defendants in her lawsuit she chose to drop a few of them after looking into the accident more.

 

Martha suing the WWF was fair IMO, as Owen obviously didn't want to do the stunt. She deserves every penny that she got.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Yes, she deserves money. But she basically gave the people who made the mechanical device a slap on the wrist while going for WWE's blood.

 

Unless you think WWE intentionally killed Owen (and if you do, present me with all your proof,) the amount of damages being paid out by each party are not equal to their responsibilities.

[Guest evilhomer]

I believe Martha's line of thinking is that the WWE made Owen do the stunt that led to his death. She holds the WWE totally responsible because they're the ones who put him up on the rafter, for a stunt that he was ill-trained for, and didn't want to do. Faulty equipment is irrelavent because it would never have come into play if he wasn't forced into the stunt in the first place. So since she holds the WWE totally responsible, that's where she wants the settlement to come from.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Where's the transcripts of these alleged discussions that say he was against doing the stunt but they forced him?

 

Let me know if you ever find them, it will be an interesting read....

[Guest Choken One]

People think it was like this

 

Vince: Hey, Owen

Owen: Hi, Vince

Vince: Ready for Over the Edge?

Owen: Yeah, I really think me and Charles can do something good

Vince: Well, Let's make it a little more Spectactular

Owen: Yeah sure

Vince: How about you repel from the roof like a Superhero?

Owen: Um, From the Roof Vince?

Vince: Yeah, SOund Good?

Owen: I don't think I want to vince, I am gonna have to say no.

Vince: (Face boils) WHAT? Did you Say NO to Vince McMahon? No? Did You?

Owen: To tell the truth, I don't like the idea of this.

Vince: You're just like your Damn brother, Owen. Ungrateful. You WILL do the stunt, or your FIIRREED!

Owen: All right fine.

 

Here is how it likely really went

 

Vince: Hello, Owen

Owen: Hey, Vince

Vince: Look, I had an Idea for the PPV

Owen: Yeah?

Vince: I've seen how Sting over in WCW is over because he repels from the roof and I was thinking maybe with the Blazer Super Hero gimmick we could have you repel down and fly.

Owen: I dunno.

Vince: Think about Owen, It'll really add something special to the match

Owen: Yeah, Your right. I'll do it.

Vince: Thataboy.

[Guest Jack Tunney]

What I hated was that the next day in all the newspapers it said "Owen Hart,known as The Blue Blazer...".That ruins his legacy,they made him bring back that stupid-ass gimmick for a little bit so that Vince Russo can make the smarks chuckle over it.He wasnt always the Blue Blazer dammit.I wish Vince Russo would have a nasty fall himself.