Family of Kiss guitar technician dies after contracting coronavirus while performing the band's “End of the Road” World Tour won a wrongful death lawsuit against the band, after the band's motion to dismiss the case was denied in a Los Angeles court on Friday.
Katherine Stuber, whose husband Fran was Paul Stanley's guitar technician for decades, and several family members filed a lawsuit in October 2023 against Stanley, Gene Simmons and Kiss' longtime manager Doc McGee, alleging negligence and wrongful death. The lawsuit also names tour promoter Live Nation and hotel chain Marriott as defendants.
McGhee, Simmons and Stanley contested the complaint in an opposition first filed in December, arguing that the defendants and Stuber's family have already settled for $250,000 in workers' compensation in 2023. “Plaintiffs have already received compensation. This complaint is an improper attempt by them to 'double-dip,'” Barry Mullen, an attorney for Band and McGhee, wrote at the time.
“Apparently, there was no intention to settle the workers' compensation action, which was the plaintiffs' only remedy, only for the same parties to subsequently file a civil action in superior court against the individuals who owned and operated the KISS touring entity that employed the deceased,” Mullen said in a separate filing last week.
Stuber's lawyers had argued that the claim was settled with Kiss itself, not with Stanley, Simmons & McGehee, which was not named as a defendant in the suit.
The lawsuit was filed more than two years later. Rolling Stone The initial investigation detailed allegations from several Kiss roadies who claimed minimal COVID-19 precautions led to Stuber's death, saying they weren't regularly tested and that Stuber died in a Michigan hotel room after falling ill and being quarantined.
“I couldn't believe they were still running when it was so dangerous,” one roadie said. Rolling Stone “We were frustrated for weeks, and then when Fran died, I thought, 'You've got to be kidding me.'”
The band denied the roadie's claims at the time, saying the band's protocols “met, and in most cases exceeded, federal, state and local guidelines. But at the end of the day, this is still a global pandemic, and there is no foolproof way to tour without risk.” Rolling Stone Some of the crew members had forged vaccination cards.
In the initial complaint, Stuber's family alleged that “as a direct and proximate result of the dangerous conditions created by Defendants, the Deceased suffered fatal injuries and Plaintiffs have suffered damages, including, but not limited to, funeral and burial expenses, and the permanent loss of affection, companionship, love, comfort, society, comfort, assistance, services and financial contributions, and emotional support for the Deceased.”
In a tentative ruling filed earlier this week, the judge overseeing the case wrote that the defendants “have not established that an employment relationship existed between the Defendants and the Deceased, nor have they established that the Defendants were released when the Plaintiffs settled their workers' compensation lawsuit against Kiss.”
“Defendants contend that Plaintiffs' workers' compensation action against Kiss Company means that Plaintiffs have already exercised their exclusive remedy for compensation from Defendants. Simply put, Plaintiffs allege no employment relationship existed between Defendants and the Deceased, which is not clear from the complaint,” the judge further wrote. “Furthermore, it is not immediately clear that Defendants were released by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board's Order Approving the Settlement and Discharge of Dependency Claims. The complaint's language indicates only that the Deceased worked as a guitar technician for the rock band KISS, that Defendant McGhee Entertainment, Inc. managed KISS, and that the Defendants had a contract with each other.”
During Friday's hearing, Mullen further noted that the dispute was already resolved through a workers' compensation settlement, but Judge Lisa Sepe Wiesenfeld upheld the tentative ruling, denied the challenge, and ordered the defendants to answer the initial complaint within the next 20 days. With the challenge unsuccessful, Mullen indicated the defendants will file a motion for summary judgment, which, if granted, would end the litigation.
“We're going to file a motion for summary judgment. The case is resolved,” he said.
