{"id":17449,"date":"2016-04-25T12:12:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T17:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=17449"},"modified":"2016-04-25T13:52:23","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T18:52:23","slug":"pwtorch-report-john-cena-wins-legal-battle-from-2010-scaffolding-incident-at-florida-home-what-the-judge-ruled-more-details-from-the-legal-file","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/04\/25\/pwtorch-report-john-cena-wins-legal-battle-from-2010-scaffolding-incident-at-florida-home-what-the-judge-ruled-more-details-from-the-legal-file\/","title":{"rendered":"PWTorch Report &#8211; John Cena wins legal battle from 2010 scaffolding incident at Florida home, what the judge ruled &#038; more details from the legal file"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-158666424\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>If John Cena was extra fired-up to make his WWE return at WrestleMania on April 3, it was because he had just won a legal battle\u00a0hanging over his head for two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, March 31, Judge Linda Babb ruled in favor of Cena against contract worker Dale Ducharme, who sued Cena for $15,000 over claimed injuries performing work on Cena&#8217;s Florida home. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.prowrestlingsheet.com\/john-cena-cleared-wins-court-construction\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pro Wrestling Sheet<\/a> first reported the news.)<\/p>\n<p>Judge Babb ruled that Ducharme receives nothing and Cena is removed of any legal obligation. The case was closed and the court considers the matter completed.<\/p>\n<p>PWTorch obtained the legal file containing 252 individual events over the past two-and-a-half years in the Circuit Court of Pasco County, Florida:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The situation dates back to June 2010 when Ducharme was contracted to work on Cena&#8217;s 10,000-square-foot home in Land O&#8217; Lakes, Florida. The project was converting the garage into a guesthouse.<\/p>\n<p>Ducharme claimed that he fell from a scaffold, causing bodily injury. He said the scaffold provided to him\u00a0was &#8220;not appropriate for the type of heavy masonry work that was being performed&#8221; moving and re-arranging bricks and other heavy objects.<\/p>\n<p>In the civil suit, Ducharme claimed\u00a0the scaffolding provided for the project was &#8220;defective or damaged, either or both of which contributed to the floor of the scaffolding buckling and collapsing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Within the suit, Ducharme claimed Cena was negligent in providing an unsafe place to perform the work, an unsafe scaffold, and not equipping other individuals to set up a safe work environment.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1810771908\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Ducharme also\u00a0claimed numerous bodily injuries, medical and hospital expenses, an inability to work at his previous condition, and aggravation of a previously existing condition.<\/p>\n<p>To capture how long the legal process took, the scaffolding event occurred in June 2010, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/artman2\/publish\/WWE_News_3\/article_73733.shtml#.Vx3M_aMrInc\">Ducharme filed suit against Cena in September 2013<\/a>, and Cena was cleared in March 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Going back to last year, the court record shows that Cena proposed a settlement in March 2015.\u00a0The file indicating what was proposed has been sealed, though. The legal process continued for another year.<\/p>\n<p>Cena filed another proposal for settlement in February 2016. That document is also sealed. At the same time, Ducharme&#8217;s camp filed a 52-page deposition from an expert in the field, William Scharber, attempting to establish Ducharme&#8217;s case against Cena. Reading through the lengthy deposition that included sidebars to bike-riding in Florida, it appears the cross-examination of the Scharber ended up casting doubt over the credibility of Ducharme&#8217;s claims. One key item was Scharber assessing that Ducharme was about 25 percent to blame for the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Cena then filed a motion on February 24 opposing Ducharme&#8217;s motion for a partial summary judgment. Cena also\u00a0withdrew his proposal for settlement and petitioned the court on February 29 to make a final summary judgment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/04\/CenaRuling.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-17460\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/04\/CenaRuling-283x300.png\" alt=\"CenaRuling\" width=\"200\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/04\/CenaRuling-283x300.png 283w, https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/04\/CenaRuling-768x815.png 768w, https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/04\/CenaRuling.png 813w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Four\u00a0weeks later on March 31, Judge Babb granted Cena&#8217;s request for final summary judgment and ruled &#8220;in favor of defendant John Cena.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Judge Babb&#8217;s reasonings were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Court finds there is no evidence showing the subject scaffold was defective either in workmanship or use.<\/li>\n<li>The Court further finds John Cena did not know nor have reason to know of the alleged defective condition of the scaffold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The legal situation was scheduled for trial on two separate occasions in 2014 and 2015, per Ducharme&#8217;s initial request in September 2013 for a jury trial.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1761973159\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>In September 2014, a jury trial was set for the beginning of 2015. However, the court ordered the case go to mediation. That did not resolve the situation, so\u00a0in April 2015, a trial was scheduled again for later in the year. However, that was delayed until\u00a02016.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Cena&#8217;s side eventually filed a\u00a0motion demanding summary judgment. Cena won and was cleared of the $15,000 claim filed by Ducharme with no further legal obligation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-4192212892\"><div id=\"pwtor-654350674\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>If John Cena was extra fired-up to make his WWE return at WrestleMania on April 3, it was because he had just won a legal battle\u00a0hanging over his head for two-and-a-half years. On Thursday, March <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/04\/25\/pwtorch-report-john-cena-wins-legal-battle-from-2010-scaffolding-incident-at-florida-home-what-the-judge-ruled-more-details-from-the-legal-file\/\" title=\"PWTorch Report &#8211; John Cena wins legal battle from 2010 scaffolding incident at Florida home, what the judge ruled &#038; more details from the legal file\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[116,71],"class_list":["post-17449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_wwe","tag-john-cena","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2015\/11\/CenaPhotoWK_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17449"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17467,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17449\/revisions\/17467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}