‘Dance Moms’ Lawsuit Results: Judge Sides With Abby Lee Miller, Kelly Hyland’s Emotional Distress Claims Tossed

Kelly Hyland’s lawsuit against her former “Dance Moms” co-star, Abby Lee Miller, is not falling in her favor. During her latest court hearing in Los Angeles Friday regarding her late 2013 on-screen scuffle with Miller, which she claims caused her emotional distress, Deadline.com is reporting that the judge sided with the dance coach. Similar charges against the show’s production company, Collins Avenue Entertainment, were also reportedly dropped.

According to the site, L.A. Superior Court Judge Ruth Kwan tossed out the emotional distress claims in Hyland’s multi-claim Feb. 19 lawsuit after previously announcing she was considering dismissing the allegations during a separate hearing in August. A similar emotional distress motion filed last month by her 14-year-old daughter and fellow “Dance Moms” co-star Paige Hyland against Miller, 48, was also reportedly dropped.

Unfortunately for Hyland, 43, Judge Kwan also tossed her defamation motion. The dance mom's lawsuit stated that Miller’s comments about their fight during her appearance on ABC’s “The View” in January were defamatory. Miller’s lawyers reportedly defended their client by saying that her interview fell under the category of “free speech.”

While Miller and “Dance Moms” producers may have secured one victory of the Hyland family, the courts are still moving forward with both of the Hyland’s breach-of-contract complaints. Hyland stated in her lawsuit that the network had failed to pay her and her daughters for their time on the series following their combative final appearance on the program last November.

After years of going head-to-head on and off-screen, Miller, the owner of the Abby Lee Dance Company in Pittsburgh, and Hyland were involved in a physical scuffle at a dance event in New York in Nov. 2013. Following the incident, which appeared on Season 4 of the program, Miller had Hyland booked for assault and harassment only to later drop the charges. Three months later, Hyland filed her countersuit, seeking $5 million in punitive damages from Miller and Collins Avenue Entertainment and alleging that Miller tried to bite her during the fight.

The Hyland family, which also includes Brooke, 16, have not appeared on the “Dance Moms” since the incident. The trio were part of the hit program’s original cast which first premiered on Lifetime in 2011. The series, currently filming Season 5, is expected to return with new episodes in 2015.