The family of an Activision Blizzard employee who died of suicide in 2017 is suing the video game company in a lawsuit for wrongful death filed in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Janet and Paul Moynihan, parents of a 32-year-old financial manager of Activision Blizzard who died of suicide during a business trip, say sexual harassment is a “significant factor” in her death. Kerry Moynihan was found dead in a hotel room at the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa at Disneyland in April 2017 after taking her own life.
A lawyer representing Paul and Janet Moynihan provided Polygon with a copy of the case, but did not comment further. The Washington Post was the first to announce the submission.
The case alleges Activision Blizzard’s alleged “hostile, intimidating, insulting and abusive” job. It alleges that Activision Blizzard was responsible for failing to prevent the harassment that led to her suicide. indicated. The lawsuit alleges that an employee died of suicide during a business trip “due to a sexual relationship she had with her male boss.” Moynihan is also said to have experienced sexual harassment at work before the trip – including an incident in which photos of Moynihan’s vagina were taken to a company party. At the filing of DFEH, Activision Blizzard said it called the allegations in the lawsuit “distorted and in many cases incorrect”.
Moynihan joined Activision Blizzard in 2011 as an accountant. The lawsuit says she was “a passionate and dedicated employee who worked extremely long hours and was liked by her colleagues.” In 2016, she was promoted to financial manager supporting Activision Blizzard’s operations in Latin America, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit named Greg Restituito as Moynihan’s manager and claimed that Restituito lied to investigators about having sex with Moynihan. According to the lawsuit, Activision Blizzard also refused to give Moynihan’s work laptop to police and denied police access to Restituito’s work mobile phone, saying it had been “deleted”. Restituito worked for Activision Blizzard as Senior Chief Financial Officer from May 2016 to May 2017, according to his LinkedIn account.
The case referred to a police report alleging that the Restituito had made “seemingly unusual inquiries with other officers who had attended the [Kerri] the night before her death “and also went to her apartment” and cleaned it and took things out of it “.
A spokesman for Activision Blizzard told Polygon that the company was “deeply saddened” by Moynihan’s death, saying it was a “valuable member of the company”.
He continued: “We will consider the complaint through the court process, as appropriate, and out of respect for the family, we have no further comments at this time.”
In the months following the DFEH trial, Activision Blizzard workers called on CEO Bobby Kotik to resign, particularly after a Wall Street Journal report revealed Kotik’s knowledge of employee misconduct and sexual harassment. The company was also sued by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year before agreeing to a $ 18 million deal. In January, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $ 68.7 billion, the largest acquisition in Microsoft history.