Although Safechuck filed a civil case in 2014, his civil case remained silent and inactive until June 2015. On July, 2015 Safechuck identified Doe2 and Doe 3 defendants. This will start the process (demurrer and such) for Safechuck civil case. Why now? In my personal opinion, judge dismissing Robson’s probate claim demonstrated that Safechuck’s probate claim doesn’t stand much chance either therefore they are focusing their efforts on the civil claims.

Safechuck’s civil complaint provides information about why his probate claim most probably wouldn’t be successful. Probate code requires any claim to be filed within 60 days of knowledge of administration of the Estate and the creditor’s actual knowledge of the existence of the facts giving rise to the existence of the claim. Unlike Robson, Safechuck doesn’t claim he didn’t know about the Estate. To the contrary, Safechuck openly admits he heard from news reports that John Branca would be managing MJ’s business affairs and he knew who Branca was. Safechuck similar to Robson doesn’t claim repressed memory. He states he told his mother in 2005 MJ was a “bad man” and he told his mother in “briefest statement that he had been abused” in 2005. Furthermore Safechuck started to see a therapist on May 20, 2013. Given Safechuck hasn’t filed his probate claim until 2014, there’s no way he can satisfy the within 60 days rule of probate. That alone should be enough for the judge to dismiss his probate claim eventually. ( Few rounds of chances to amend a complaint routinely happens).

That brings us to the civil complaint.

** Updated June 26, 2015. Scroll down to read the updated section (title highlighted in red)

You probably heard Robson’s late probate claim against MJ Estate has been recently dismissed. However he also has a civil case against MJ Companies. Civil case has been initially brought against Doe defendants. In his second amended complaint Robson named Doe 2 and Doe 3 as MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures. Estate demurred to the second amended complaint. Judge granted that demurrer request of the corporate defendants but gave Robson the chance to amend his complaint. Robson served his third amended complaint on December 16, 2014. However the online court system doesn’t show this document and therefore we don’t know much about the changes Robson made to his third complaint.

Once a complaint is filed, the legal steps to follow are (1) a demurrer motion (by estate), (2) an opposition to demurrer (by Robson), (3) a reply to opposition (by Estate), (4) a hearing and (5) a ruling by the judge. You will find details of each of these steps and I will update this post with more information as it becomes available.

Over the last few weeks, there have been few developments in Robson (civil) and Safechuck (probate claim) cases. First, the hearing date for all active issues (civil demurrer, probate demurrer and motion to quash) has been consolidated to July 20,2015. Previously they were spread out at June 30, July 8 and July 13. Documents show that lawyers for both sides had conflict with some of the dates so they agreed to consolidate it all to July 20.

On July 20 hearing, Judge will hear arguments for 3 matters.

First matter is the demurrer for Robson civil case against MJ companies. I previously wrote a detailed post explaining all the developments for that demurrer. You can find the link here: Robson Civil Case: Demurrer for the Third Amended Civil Complaint.

Second matter is a motion to quash filed by Robson. As I reported previously, Estate has served subpoenas to three doctors (2 treating physicians and a doctor retained to write the required certificate of merit) related to this case. Estate asked: entire file for Robson, billing records for Robson, date of every appointment, any medical records and notes, all communication between the doctors and Robson/Robson lawyers and anything in the possession of the doctor related to MJ. Robson lawyers have filed a motion to quash the subpoena served to the doctor that was hired by Robson's lawyers and provided the certificate of merit. They state they would use that doctor as an expert witness and expert witness depositions/ testimonies are only exchanged before a trial.

Ruling can be found here: https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/16e893f7-cb8d-488b-9b09-d35207848ae7

Before discussing judge’s ruling, I want to remind everyone that during demurrer/ summary judgment judge’s duty is not to determine credibility of Robson’s claims and/or innocence of MJ. This summary judgment is focused on Robson’s late probate claim and if any reason exists to allow the late probate claim. Furthermore during demurrer/summary judgment by law judge is required to accept everything Robson is saying as true and/or approach to everything presented in a way that is most favorable for Robson.

It is undisputed that Robson have filed a late claim against MJ Estate. First judge addresses time limits to bring a creditor claim against an Estate.

Probate rule 9103 (1) states a creditor can file a claim “within 60 days after the creditor has actual knowledge of the administration of the estate”. Robson claimed he did not know about the administration of the Estate until he went and talked to his lawyers. Judge rejected Robson’s argument and in his ruling states that Robson had “actual knowledge of administration of the Estate in February 2011(or at the latest sometime in the last quarter of 2011)”. From previous documents we know this is the time Robson met with Branca – Executor of MJ Estate – to discuss working on Cirque Immortal show.