‘Love is Blind’ Producer Defeats Assault Claims in Split Appeal

A production company for Netflix’s “Love is Blind” no longer faces civil assault claims in Texas from a contestant who says she was sexually assaulted by another contestant, a Texas appeals court said Thursday, citing that the alleged assault would have occurred during filming in Mexico.

However, Kinetic Content, LLC must still defend claims of false imprisonment and negligence since they relate to filming in Houston, the setting for the majority of the fifth season, the court said.

Participant Tran Dang says Kinetic downplayed an assault from fellow participant Thomas Smith, taking no action to help her despite having around-the-clock video footage that would’ve captured the incident. At other points of filming, Dang also says she was sequestered to a Houston hotel room without a cell phone or any personal identification information.

The show is premised on singles communicating without seeing each other. The only way they get to meet face-to-face is if they become engaged; those couples are then taken to a vacation at a luxury resort. It was at the Mexico resort where Dang says she was assaulted. She refutes that she became engaged to Smith.

Holding that the trial court wrongly said it had jurisdiction over the assault, the appeals court said “none of Dang’s jurisdictional allegations sufficiently relate to her Mexico-based assault claims.”

Kinetic had tried to get out of the false imprisonment and negligence claims by saying Dang’s claims concerned the actions of Delirium. Kinetic further argued it can’t be sued in Texas because it doesn’t do business in the state.

Rejecting that theory, the appeals court noted Kinetic required Dang to execute a participation agreement with Delirium and to sign Kinetic’s employee handbook.

“Both of these documents were sent to Dang in Texas and executed by her in Texas,” the court said.

In a related opinion Thursday, the court denied Kinetic’s bid to toss a sanctions bid from Dang brought under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. Dang said a declaration of Kinetic’s Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs, John L. Roncone III, included false information and did not negate jurisdictional facts outlined in Dang’s petition.

Thursday’s decisions come a month after the appeals court rejected Delirium’s effort to settle Dang’s claims through arbitration. Though a pre-filming agreement with Dang generally requires arbitration, federal law exempts sexual assault claims from arbitration, the court said.

The case is Kinetic Content, LLC v. Dang, Tex. App., 1st Dist., No. 01-23-00444-cv, 5/9/24.