NEW YORK--The death of Fox News founder Roger Ailes could pose a major hurdle to a series of lawsuits that claimed he sexually harassed female anchors and contributors at America's most-watched cable channel.
The sexual harassment claims against him could be complicated by a 19th-century New York state law that bars people with stakes in lawsuits from testifying about private conversations with parties who have died. Ailes, 77, died from bleeding on the brain caused by a fall last week at his home in Florida, according to the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner.
His departure from Fox News in July amid a sexual harassment scandal abruptly ended his 20-year reign at the cable channel that helped reshape American politics with conservative-leaning hosts such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
Former anchor Andrea Tantaros and contributor Julie Roginsky have claimed in lawsuits that Ailes harassed them and that Fox News retaliated against them for rebuffing him. The Tantaros case is in arbitration in New York and the Roginsky case is pending in Manhattan State Supreme Court.
The law, commonly known as the "dead man’s statute," is rarely invoked outside of cases involving disputed wills and estates, lawyers and law professors said. But if the law is raised by Fox or Ailes’ estate, it could set back Tantaros and Roginsky, whose key claims are based on private conversations with Ailes.
"If no one else was there, you probably have to build your proof another way," said Stephen Gillers, a professor at NYU School of Law. The law would only apply to lawsuits in which Ailes is named as a defendant.
Fox News, which Ailes started in 1996 with the backing of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, raised the temperature of on-air debate on U.S. television, generally taking a hardline conservative view. It has had a mixed relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, a longtime friend of Ailes, but was instrumental in his election victory in November.
Ailes received a severance package of about $40 million when he left Fox News, owned by Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, according to a source familiar with the situation. He went on to serve as an informal adviser to Murdoch.
"Everybody at Fox News is shocked and grieved by the death of Roger Ailes," Murdoch said in a statement.
"Roger and I shared a big idea which he executed in a way no one else could have," he added. "Roger was a patriot, who never ceased fighting for his beliefs."
Hannity paid tribute on his show to his former boss. “Today America lost one of its great patriotic warriors," he said in a statement read on the channel. "For decades, RA (Roger Ailes) has impacted American politics and media. He has dramatically and forever changed the political and the media landscape single-handedly for the better."
