A Suffolk Superior Court in Massachusetts has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming that the Boston Ballet had pressured an anorexic dancer to starve herself, resulting in a fatal heart attack.
Patricia Harrington of San Francisco had filed the suit last year, charging that the ballet company and its artistic director had forced the death of her daughter, Heidi Guenther, by refusing to provide her a contract unless she lost weight. Harrington claimed that the company's action resulted in Guenther's developing anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder. She died of arrhythmia in 1997. A member of the company's corps de ballet, she was 5'3" and weighed 93 pounds when she collapsed.
The autopsy ruled the cause of death as an irregular heartbeat, with no link to the anorexia, according to The Associated Press.
Suffolk Superior Court Justice Elizabeth M. Fahey dismissed the suit last Friday, ruling the plaintiff showed no "combination of facts that could be proved in support of [the plaintiff's] claim."
Following the ruling, Harrington's attorney, Herb Holtz, told The Boston Globe he felt the court's decision was not based on the case's merits. He added he didn't know if he would appeal.