The Ruling Is Right for Bob Barker

Judge dismisses wrongful-termination lawsuit against the Price Is Right host after ruling that plaintiff was employed by CBS, not Barker

Bob Barker can really retire now.

A lawsuit accusing the daytime-TV icon of firing a Price Is Right producer because she testified against him in another ex-employee's civil case has been dismissed.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Malcom Mackey determined that plaintiff Deborah Curling, who sued Barker, CBS and production company Fremantle North America, on Oct. 4, was employed by the network at the time—and not by Barker individually, which earns him a pass on the wrongful-termination claim.

And if Curling wants to pursue her charges of intentional infliction of emotional distress and creation of a hostile working environment against the octogenarian, she's going to have to come up with more evidence and amend her complaint, Mackey said.

Barker's attorney did not immediately comment, but Curling's lawyer, Nick A. Alden, said that they will continue to move forward against CBS.

Curling claimed she was forced out after 24 years with the show. She stated in her lawsuit that, in addition to experiencing racism behind the scenes of The Price Is Right (she is black), Barker "made it his life mission to destroy the livelihood of every person who contradicted him or did not do what [he] ordered…whether it was legal or not."

Mackey said that she will also have to beef up her claims of wrongful termination and emotional distress against Fremantle before she can proceed against it, as well.

UPDATE: A judge dismissed Curling's claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress on Dec. 10, with no objection coming from the plaintiff's counsel. Motions filed by Fremantle and CBS to dismiss the rest of her case are pending.