In a new motion filed Monday, Linda McMahon’s attorneys argued the ring boy lawsuit should be dismissed because she has no significant connection to Maryland, where the lawsuit is filed.
The lawsuit, brought by five former WWF ring boys, is filed in Maryland, where the state’s Child Victims Act of 2023 has removed any time limits within which victims of child sexual abuse have to file civil lawsuits against the people or organizations they say were responsible or negligent. Most other states have statutes of limitations on such claims. A ruling from Maryland’s Supreme Court in February upheld the law’s removal of such time limits.
McMahon, who is currently serving as the U.S. Secretary of Education, is a defendant in the case along with WWE, its parent company, TKO, and her husband, Vince McMahon.
The former ring boys allege former WWF ring announcer Mel Phillips, who died in 2012, sexually abused them throughout the 1980s. The McMahons were the lead executives of the WWF throughout the decade. With Phillips deceased, the ring boys seek to hold the McMahons and the company they founded accountable for what they allege was negligence that allowed Phillips to abuse them. Linda McMahon left her role with WWE in 2009.
“What stands out from the Complaint, however,” Linda McMahon’s attorneys state, “is that it lacks: any basis for personal jurisdiction over Defendants in Maryland, and any plausible claim for relief.”
McMahon’s lawyers make the argument that she has no sufficient connection to Maryland for the lawsuit to be rightly litigated in U.S. District Court in the state. If her argument is successful, it could severely limit the plaintiffs’ ability to bring claims against the defendants elsewhere, due to statutes of limitations in other jurisdictions.
In a written declaration signed by McMahon, she asserts that she has recently learned the actual identities of the plaintiffs and that she has never met or communicated with them to the best of her knowledge and memory.
Last week, Judge James K. Bredar, who’s overseeing the case, approved an order allowing the defendants to know the names, birth dates, and current residential addresses of the five anonymized ring boys. It’s not uncommon for such decisions to be made in cases brought by claimants who are allowed to use pseudonyms. The order doesn’t allow the public to know their identities, and it doesn’t allow the defendants to disclose their identities to anyone beyond the attorneys and the individual defendants themselves.
Although the ring boy scandal has been covered in media since the early 1990s, McMahon says she didn’t have prior knowledge of these allegations.
“Until this lawsuit, I was unaware of their allegations against me or anyone else named in the complaint,” McMahon wrote.
McMahon also distanced herself from responsibility for Phillips’ alleged acts of abuse.
“I never personally supervised Phillips while he was employed by WWE, nor did I direct his activities,” she stated. “Phillips never acted as my agent. If Phillips traveled to Maryland and committed acts of sexual abuse while in Maryland, it was certainly not at my direction nor with my knowledge.”
She added: “I never personally employed any ‘Ring Boys,’ as that term is defined in the Complaint.”
The lawsuit, filed in October last year, describes “Ring Boys,” as underage boys hired by Phillips, “to assist the ring crew with errands and other tasks in preparation for WWE’s wrestling shows.”
In support of her argument that the court shouldn’t have jurisdiction over her, McMahon points out that she does not reside in or own property in Maryland. She is a resident of Connecticut and owns a condominium in Washington, D.C. McMahon states she only has loose connections to Maryland.
McMahon’s declaration asserts that she may have briefly held a license in Maryland in 2004 related to conducting wrestling events and that she rented an apartment in the state from 1970 to 1972. However, she argues that without any other ties, her limited connection to the state doesn’t suffice for the case to continue in Maryland, where the plaintiffs’ legal claims may be most viable.
Also pertaining to jurisdiction, McMahon’s lawyers raise that John Does 2 and 3 didn’t describe a specific instance of alleged abuse that happened in Maryland. McMahon seems to question whether the incidents of abuse alleged by Does 2 and 3, if they occurred, actually took place in the state.
Linda McMahon is being represented by Laura Brevetti, who formerly served as General Counsel for WWE, as well as local counsel from the Zuckerman Spaeder firm.
Vince McMahon and WWE are each represented by separate attorneys in the case. Jessica T. Rosenberg from Akin Gump is working with Vince McMahon, as well as lawyers from Kramon & Graham in Maryland. Rosenberg is also representing McMahon in his defense against sex trafficking allegations from former WWE employee Janel Grant.
Daniel Toal of the Paul Weiss law firm is representing WWE and TKO. He’s also defending the company in the Grant case.
Attorneys from DiCello Levitt, including Greg Gutzler, represent the five plaintiffs.
Requests for comment for this report, addressed to attorneys for the plaintiffs and Linda McMahon, were not immediately returned.
