Pro Wrestlers Fail to Revive Concussion Claims Against WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. won’t face reinstated claims in several consolidated concussion cases brought on behalf of former professional wrestlers, after the Second Circuit found the plaintiffs had waited too long to press their claims.

A complaint filed by 50 former wrestlers was filed outside the three-year statute of limitations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit court said Wednesday in a summary order.

The complaint alleged that WWE concealed the risk that concussive blows to the head could cause permanent degenerative neurological conditions, with the aim of inducing the wrestlers to continue performing.

But any concealment of information must have occurred when the wrestlers were still performing, and because it was not disputed that none had wrestled later than 2011, their tort claims were time-barred, the court affirmed.

Wrongful death claims in the complaint are also barred by Connecticut’s five-year statute of limitations because none of the plaintiffs wrestled for WWE within five years of the filing of the complaint, the court said.

Claims in four other cases failed because the appeals in those cases were filed well beyond the time limit for doing so, the court said.

In three of them—all proposed class actions—the trial court dismissed the claims after finding the plaintiffs failed to allege specifically that WWE acted recklessly or intentionally with respect to the risks that are inherent in compensated professional stunt wrestling.

In the fourth case, the court dismissed claims by the estate of a wrestler who died in 2014 and had been cremated, making it impossible to examine his brain tissue to determine whether he suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

The appeals court declined to rule on a challenge to sanctions imposed on plaintiffs’ counsel—Konstantine Kryos, of the Kryos Law Offices in Hingham, Mass.—in two of the actions.

Because the amount of the sanctions hasn’t been determined, the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the sanctions appeal.

Judges Barrington D. Parker, Michael H. Park, and William J. Nardini issued the summary order.

The plaintiffs are represented by Mirabella Law LLC, Kyros Law PC, and S. James Boumil of Lowell, Mass.

K&L Gates LLP and Day Pitney LLP represent WWE.

The case is Haynes v. World Wrestling Entm’t, Inc., 2d Cir., No. 18-3278, unpublished 9/9/20.