A Manhattan judge ordered a wrongful death lawsuit against Fox News on behalf of the family of a young Ukrainian journalist who was killed on a reporting trip outside Kyiv to proceed into the discovery process, overruling the network’s attempt to dismiss it entirely.
The parents of Oleksandra Kuvshynov, a 24-year-old Ukrainian freelance guide and translator for Fox News, sued the news network after their daughter was killed by artillery fire that hit her news crew’s car while gathering footage in an area that Ukrainian officials allegedly had warned the team to avoid.
The parents, joined by Shane Thomson, a security contractor tasked with advising the journalists, allege that Fox did not take precautions to protect its reporting team, tried to cover up Kuvshynov’s death and subsequently shifted blame for the disaster on Thomson.
In addition to Fox News, the suit names Fox Corporation Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch, Fox News Chief Executive Suzanne Scott, and correspondent Benjamin Hall, who survived after sustaining an acute injury in the attack, as defendants.
Fox argues the Kuvshynovs signed a release waiving their right to sue and moved to dismiss the complaint. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Mary Rosado denied the motion, ruling that preventing more fact-finding would be a “grave injustice” because the parents were unrepresented, grieving and in a war zone when they signed it.
But in her ruling on Dec. 31, Rosado dismissed the specific claims against Fox executives, Murdoch and Scott, unless information substantively comes to light during discovery. She allowed the claims against Hall to move forward.
“When the Kuvshynovs signed the waiver and release, they were unrepresented, had just learned their daughter died, and were living in an active war zone,” Rosado wrote.
Rosado took note that the suit alleges that the circumstances under which Kuvshynov died were misrepresented to her parents, who did not have the ability to investigate Fox News’ account of the disaster at the time because they were navigating the invasion.
In the suit, the Kuvshynovs, who are represented by Seth Dymond of Belluck Law, say Fox did not take the necessary precautions to protect the reporting team, ignoring a series of warnings from Ukrainian officials and its security contractors in pressing them to advance into an area where journalists had been banned.
In addition to wrongful death, the Kuvshynovs and Thomson claim that Fox committed fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation and tortious interference. Neither a spokesperson for Fox News or its attorneys in the case, Steven Mintz and Charles Michael, responded to requests for comment.
When Fox presented the waiver to the Kuvshynovs, which provided them backpay, funeral expenses, and life insurance, it did not reveal any information regarding the circumstances surrounding their daughter’s death. The parents are suing for damages from what they allege is fraud and misrepresentation.
The court allowed the parents’ wrongful death claim to move forward under Ukrainian law.
Thomson alleges Fox made him a “scapegoat” and spread rumors of a drinking problem to get him fired from subsequent jobs. He also said that the network forced him to transport the body of one of the cameramen who died across the war zone to Poland while barring him from telling the cameraman’s widow the facts of his death, then ignored his pleas for mental health support.
The court allowed Thomson’s claims of tortious interference and emotional distress to proceed, but dismissed his claim of defamation because it lacked specificity.
Rosado ordered that the parties submit a conference order by February 11.
