Common
06-13-2016, 02:00 PM
The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals 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 threw out the $1.35 million awarded to Ventura for “unjust enrichment,” saying Minnesota law did not allow a payout in this type of case; and it reversed the $500,000 award for defamation, remanding the case to the district court for a new defamation trial.
The decision was a major victory for the estate of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who wrote the bestselling memoir that Ventura said defamed him. It was also a victory for news organizations, many of whom filed a brief in support of Kyle’s estate, urging that the verdict be thrown out.
It was a serious blow to Ventura, the former professional wrestler, who served as governor from 1999 to 2003.
Ventura contended that a false account of a fight in a California bar in 2006, published in Kyle’s memoir “American Sniper,” ruined his reputation among Navy SEALs, whose reunions he routinely attended after serving with the SEALs during the Vietnam War. Ventura contended that a passage describing an altercation, in which Kyle claimed he punched Ventura, never happened.
Kyle’s widow, Taya Kyle, appealed the jury’s verdict, which came after a three-week federal trial in St. Paul in July 2014. After six days of deliberations the 10-member jury deadlocked. Not knowing which side the jury favored, U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle won agreement from the attorneys on both sides to allow for the rare split decision. The verdict favored Ventura by 8 to 2.
The appeals court judges unanimously threw out the $1.35 million awarded to Ventura for “unjust enrichment.”
By a 2 to 1 decision, they reversed the defamation award of $500,000, and ordered the district court to conduct a new trial.
The court found that the unjust enrichment claim was not applicable in Ventura’s case.
In order to prevail on such a claim, Ventura would have had to establish that he had at least a “preexisting contractual or quasi-contractual relationship with Kyle,” the ruling said.
No such contract existed, said the court. “Ventura’s unjust-enrichment claim is not allowed by Minnesota law.”
In addition, the appellate court said, the remedy for unjust enrichment for defamation of public figures was monetary damages for defamation.
However, the appeals court majority also overturned the $500,000 defamation award. It hinged its reversal on a more technical argument, but one that was a centerpiece of the appeal filed by the attorneys for Taya Kyle and her estate.
http://www.startribune.com/court-overturns-ventura-defamation-award/382684251/
A three-judge panel threw out the $1.35 million awarded to Ventura for “unjust enrichment,” saying Minnesota law did not allow a payout in this type of case; and it reversed the $500,000 award for defamation, remanding the case to the district court for a new defamation trial.
The decision was a major victory for the estate of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who wrote the bestselling memoir that Ventura said defamed him. It was also a victory for news organizations, many of whom filed a brief in support of Kyle’s estate, urging that the verdict be thrown out.
It was a serious blow to Ventura, the former professional wrestler, who served as governor from 1999 to 2003.
Ventura contended that a false account of a fight in a California bar in 2006, published in Kyle’s memoir “American Sniper,” ruined his reputation among Navy SEALs, whose reunions he routinely attended after serving with the SEALs during the Vietnam War. Ventura contended that a passage describing an altercation, in which Kyle claimed he punched Ventura, never happened.
Kyle’s widow, Taya Kyle, appealed the jury’s verdict, which came after a three-week federal trial in St. Paul in July 2014. After six days of deliberations the 10-member jury deadlocked. Not knowing which side the jury favored, U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle won agreement from the attorneys on both sides to allow for the rare split decision. The verdict favored Ventura by 8 to 2.
The appeals court judges unanimously threw out the $1.35 million awarded to Ventura for “unjust enrichment.”
By a 2 to 1 decision, they reversed the defamation award of $500,000, and ordered the district court to conduct a new trial.
The court found that the unjust enrichment claim was not applicable in Ventura’s case.
In order to prevail on such a claim, Ventura would have had to establish that he had at least a “preexisting contractual or quasi-contractual relationship with Kyle,” the ruling said.
No such contract existed, said the court. “Ventura’s unjust-enrichment claim is not allowed by Minnesota law.”
In addition, the appellate court said, the remedy for unjust enrichment for defamation of public figures was monetary damages for defamation.
However, the appeals court majority also overturned the $500,000 defamation award. It hinged its reversal on a more technical argument, but one that was a centerpiece of the appeal filed by the attorneys for Taya Kyle and her estate.
http://www.startribune.com/court-overturns-ventura-defamation-award/382684251/