The parents of a former Activision Blizzard employee have dropped their wrongful death lawsuit against Activision Publishing, Inc. Their daughter, Kerri Moynihan, had been a finance manager at Activision Blizzard before she died by suicide on a company retreat in 2017.
Paul and Janet Moynihan filed their complaint against Activision on March 3. Alongside the wrongful death claim, the lawsuit against Activision included complaints for work environment sexual harassment and failure to prevent harassment.
However, following a month-long absence of court filings after March 30, the plaintiffs filed a request for dismissal with the Los Angeles Superior Court on May 6. According to a report from Axios, their request called for the dismissal of the case “with prejudice,” meaning the case could not be raised again in another court. The plaintiffs have not publicly revealed their reason for dropping the lawsuit.
The dismissed Activision wrongful death lawsuit
The wrongful death lawsuit had asserted that instances of sexual harassment at Activision were a “significant factor” contributing to Kerri Moynihan’s suicide. Even before her parents filed their complaint, Moynihan was anonymously referenced in the Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard in July of 2021.
According to the DFEH lawsuit, male coworkers had shared an explicit image of Moynihan at a holiday party prior to her death. However, Activision Blizzard claimed that Moynihan’s death was irrelevant to the claims of the DFEH lawsuit and criticized the California state government for bringing it up at that time.
In addition, her parents’ complaint alleged that her former boss, Greg Restituito, had lied to the Anaheim Police Department regarding a sexual relationship he had with Moynihan. Their lawsuit also accused Activision of failing to comply with the investigation by refusing to turn over Moynihan’s work-issued laptop or Restituito’s work-issued laptop and phone.
