Enlarge / Activision’s headquarters in Santa Monica, California.
The parents of former Activision employee Kerry Moynihan have filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against Activision Blizzard, claiming that the harassment she suffered while working for the company contributed to her suicide in 2017 at a corporate asylum.
The Los Angeles Supreme Court case, which was filed on Thursday and was originally reported by The Washington Post, claims that the hostile work environment Moynihan was subjected to during her time in Activision’s finance department contributed to her premature death in 2017 at the age of 32. The death, which according to the lawsuit was determined to be suicide by the investigator of Orange County, occurred during the retreat of the company Activision in the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa of Disney.
The new lawsuit cites largely the case of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, filed against Activision last July. This earlier lawsuit was used to establish that the company “encourages and allows for a sexually hostile work environment in which employees have been routinely sexually harassed, belittled, belittled and discriminated against, and Activision fails and refuses to take corrective action. actions or reasonable steps to prevent such harassment. ”
While Moynihan is not mentioned by name in the DFEH lawsuit, a new lawsuit filed by her parents suggests that an anonymous story shared by DFEH describes their daughter’s experience (warning, graphic content):
In a tragic example of harassment that the defendants allowed to fester in their offices, an employee committed suicide during a business trip due to a sexual relationship she had with her male boss … Another employee confirmed that the deceased female employee may have suffered from another sexual harassment at work before his death. In particular, at a holiday party before her death, male colleagues distributed a photo of the deceased’s vagina.
Moynihan’s parents say in the case that they were unaware of the alleged harassment their daughter was facing until the DFEH case was published last year.
“We refrain from DFEH’s reprehensible behavior in bringing to justice the tragic suicide of an employee whose death had nothing to do with the case and regardless of her grieving family,” Activision Blizzard said in a statement shortly after. The DFEH case went public last summer.
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The “male supervisor” quoted in this DFEH story, according to the new lawsuit, is Greg Restituito, who served as senior CFO for Activision at the time of Moynihan’s death, according to his LinkedIn account. Restituito, who was “married and had a newborn son,” according to the lawsuit, claims to have had sex with Moynihan in the fall of 2016 – a relationship with a subordinate that the lawsuit alleges is contrary to Activision’s policies. “.
Restituito’s one-year term at the company ended in May 2017, according to his LinkedIn account, just weeks after Moynihan’s death. During the investigation into her death, Restituto initially lied about his relationship with Moynihan until he admitted it in a second interview with police. Restituito did not respond immediately to a message with a request for comment.
In the course of this police investigation, which the trial called “superficial and incomplete”, Activision claims that it refuses to hand over Kerry’s office laptop to the LAPD, refuses to give them access to the Restituito’s working laptop, refuses to give them access to the official one. Restituito’s mobile phone and told police that Restituito’s mobile phone had been “deleted”.
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that “Activision’s failure to take immediate, appropriate and effective corrective action and / or any reasonable steps to prevent this sexual harassment in the workplace” is “a significant factor in causing harm to Kerry, including but without limitation, humiliation, embarrassment, belittling, sadness, discomfort, emotional stress, heartache, pain and suffering, all to her detriment and damage, tragically culminating in Kerry’s death at the age of 32. “
In a statement to The Washington Post, a spokesman for Activision Blizzard said the company was “deeply saddened by the tragic death of Ms Moynihan, a valuable member of the company. We will consider the complaint through legal process, as appropriate, and out of respect for the family, we have no further comments at this time. “
The lawsuit complements the legal and reputational pressure on Activision stemming from the DFEH case, which sparked a class action lawsuit, a SEC investigation and a request for change from a number of state cashiers. It also comes as Activision prepares for a $ 68.7 billion acquisition of Microsoft, which could provide an “elegant way out” for besieged Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.