U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed an appeal by attorney Konstantine Kyros and former WWE wrestlers who claimed the company didn't protect them from head injuries that could have resulted in CTE.
Judge Vanessa L. Bryant of the United States District Court of Connecticut originally dismissed the case in September 2018, but Kyros appealed the decision. The dismissal by the U.S. Court of Appeals was an affirmation of the original decision.
Bryant ruled that the lawsuit led by Kyros, former wrestler Joe "Road Warrior Animal" Laurinaitis and 53 other plaintiffs, "did not comply with the Order and that declaratory judgment, dismissal, and sanctions are warranted." The court also ruled that many claims in the lawsuit were time-barred in the State of Connecticut, given that none of the Plaintiffs had worked for WWE past 2011 and many had not worked for the company well prior to that.
The Second Circuit also dismissed additional related lawsuits against WWE because they were filed too late as well as dismissed Kyros' appeal of sanctions.
WWE gave the following statement to Wrestling Inc:
"For nearly six years, WWE was subjected to stale and frivolous claims brought by Konstantine Kyros, whose misconduct triggered countless judicial opinions along the way. Today, the Second Circuit put an end to his pattern of baseless litigation, leaving open only the question of how much he must now pay to WWE as a sanction for his misconduct. We are grateful for the attention paid to these cases by the numerous federal judges who oversaw the litigation, and to the Second Circuit for its decision."
In a statement to the Associated Press, Kyros said the ruling was "utterly devoid of any original reasoning or engagement with the legal issues raised in the wrestlers' appeal. In its conclusory assertions, the injured wrestlers find no justice having been literally denied a day in court. Per this mandate, wrestlers have no rights, no rights to bring a lawsuit, no rights to help from WWE for CTE & head injuries, no rights as misclassified employees, no rights to a jury, and ironically no right to even appeal!”
WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt gave the following statement to PWInsider:
We were very grateful for the decision, and look forward to the only remaining aspect of the case, which is for the trial court to determine the amount of the sanction Kyros now has to pay WWE. I have seen Kyros comments to [the Associated Press], which are yet another display of his dishonesty which further supports my belief he has no business practicing law. He told his clients on his webpage that the appeals would be handled by the best appellate lawyers in the country, yet he failed to even file timely appeals and at oral argument told the court he was not even prepared to argue issues they had told him to be ready to argue. And when they rule against him he just lies about what the Court did and the rulings made by them. All of which is further proof of the wisdom of Judge Bryant ordering steps to be taken to protect the public and other wrestlers from him, which she did in her last opinion on the cases."
Following the original ruling in 2018, McDevitt responded to Kyros' plan to take the lawsuit to appeals court but stating that Kyros should be "disbarred."
