'Leaving Neverland' accuser James Safechuck's lawsuit against Michael Jackson's companies dismissed

One of Michael Jackson's accusers from the "Leaving Neverland" documentary suffered a legal loss this week when a judge tossed his lawsuit against the late pop star's companies.

James Safechuck, who appeared in the explosive HBO documentary, is pursuing a separate lawsuit from fellow "Neverland" accuser Wade Robson. Both men won an appeal in California earlier this year to take Jackson's companies to a civil trial.

But on Tuesday, Los Angeles Judge Mark A. Young dismissed Safechuck's lawsuit, saying his lawyers had not proven Jackson's companies, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, had a fiduciary duty to him as a child working for the pop star, nor was it proven there was a special relationship between the two. The judge also ruled it was not proven that Jackson's companies – then led by the star – had the ability to control or discipline Jackson.

Safechuck's lawsuit alleges that Jackson abused him hundreds of times in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and claims that "the thinly-veiled, covert second purpose of (Jackson's) businesses was to operate as a child sexual abuse operation, specifically designed to locate, attract, lure and seduce child sexual abuse victims."

Jackson's estate's lawyers, his family members and administrators of his estate, which owns Jackson's companies, have vociferously denied the allegations against him by Robson and Safechuck, whom they have repeatedly labeled liars. The estate also sued HBO for airing "Leaving Neverland."

On Wednesday, Safechuck's lawyer, Vince Finaldi, said they would be appealing.

“We are appealing this ruling, as we believe it ignores well-established California law and would set a dangerous precedent that leaves children unprotected," Finaldi said in a statement to USA TODAY. "The notion that these companies owed no duty to protect Mr. Safechuck — who was a young boy working for them at the time — from a known pedophile, attempts to turn decades of child sexual abuse rulings and statutes on their head.”

The Jackson estate's lawyers, Howard Weitzman and Jonathan Steinsapir, said in a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday they were "pleased that the Court dismissed the case against Mr. Safechuck by ruling that he had no grounds to pursue his lawsuit."

Meanwhile, Deadline reports "Neverland" director Dan Reed is embroiled in a legal wrangle with Jackson’s companies as he attempts to shoot a sequel. Reed has been filming in the Los Angeles Superior Court as Robson and Safechuck navigate their lawsuits.

But on Wednesday, Weitzman and Steinsapir told USA TODAY in a statement that "there is no lawsuit around him. Time will tell if Reed makes a follow up film. One of those cases was dismissed today.”

A January ruling had reversed lower court rulings that concluded Safechuck and Robson had waited too long to sue MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures under then-existing state law. Both were adults when they filed their lawsuits in 2013 and 2014, years after they alleged Jackson abused them.

The statute of limitations covering civil suits over child sexual abuse was recently changed in California in the wake of the #MeToo movement, allowing people with such claims to sue up to the age of 40 (instead of 26).

Robson’s case is set to go to trial in June 2021.

Contributing: Maria Puente

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michael Jackson: Judge dismisses 'Leaving Neverland' accuser's lawsuit