Sex harassment suits will continue
Many of the cases target Fox News, 21st Century Fox,
Roger Ailes is dead, but sexual harassment lawsuits and investigations involving the former head of Fox News will continue — posing new legal challenges for both sides.
Many lawsuits and investigations that target a single individual would be dropped if that person died while the case was pending. However, many of the legal matters involving Ailes also target Fox News and/or parent company 21st Century Fox. The proceedings are expected to move forward and would likely substitute Ailes’ estate for the man himself as a named defendant, said Gloria Allred, a nationally known attorney who has handled many women’s rights cases.
21st Century Fox so far has paid $45 million in settlements related to sexual-harassment cases against Ailes, the company reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this month.
The absence of the man who helped build Fox News into a media powerhouse that changed U.S. broadcasting and national politics could affect both the defense and the plaintiffs in stillpending sexual-harassment cases, said Jack Schaedel, a Los Angeles-based partner in the labor and employment group of national law firm Dykema Gossett.
Plaintiff lawyers in the cases won’t be able to question Ailes in court. Anything Ailes purportedly said before his death would be less likely to be allowed into evidence unless it is corroborated by an independent witness or Ailes previously was questioned about it in a sworn deposition, said Schaedel. For the attorneys representing women suing Ailes and Fox, that limitation could make it more difficult to introduce any alleged harassing comments.
However, Ailes’ absence cuts both ways, depriving attorneys for Fox of the ability to have him in court denying the plaintiff claims and providing explanatory context for decisions and statements by him and the company.
The pending lawsuits include a