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Thursday, June 16, 2016

Appeals court overturns verdict in Ventura defamation case

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday overturned a jury's decision to award $1.8 million to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in a 2014 defamation case.

A three-judge panel unanimously threw out the $1.35 million award to Ventura for "unjust enrichment," saying Minnesota law did not permit it. And in a 2-1 decision, it reversed the $500,000 award for defamation, remanding the case to the district court for a new trial on that question.

The decision was a victory for Taya Kyle, the widow of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who wrote the bestselling memoir "American Sniper" that Ventura said defamed him. It was also a win for national news organizations that had urged that the verdict be thrown out.

"If a person bringing a libel suit could collect not just for damages, but for unjust enrichment … the whole nature of libel law would have been changed in a very threatening way," said Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment attorney in New York, who had filed an amicus brief on behalf of 33 news organizations.

The ruling was a serious blow to Ventura, the former professional wrestler who served as governor from 1999 to 2003.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good.

Anonymous said...

Chris Kyle should be exposed for the fraud that he was in real life.

Anonymous said...

Is it "unjust enrichment" to make tons of money peddling a fiction book as a non-fiction. Ventura was right to sue and the first decision was the right one.