EXCLUSIVE: CNN Receives Major Blow from Court in Defamation Case

Nicholas Fondacaro
August 9th, 2024 2:09 PM

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UPDATE: The piece has been updated with a comment from Plaintiff Zachary Young's lead counsel.

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CNN was handed a major defeat in the $1 billion defamation case against them by Florida’s First District Court of Appeals on Friday as they denied the Cable News Network’s motion for a rehearing; their hope was that the court would overturn its decision that Plaintiff and Navy veteran Zachary Young could seek punitive damages at trial.

In one sentence, the court shattered CNN’s final attempt to delay financial discovery, which would open up CNN’s check books for examination:

BY ORDER OF THE COURT: The Court denies the motion for rehearing en banc, or alternatively, for certification of conflict with the decisions of the Third and Fourth Districts and of a question of great public importance docketed June 26, 2024. 

As NewsBusters previously reported, CNN was refusing to comply with turning over documents necessary for financial discovery. 

“Despite an appellate court’s affirmation of Plaintiff’s right to plead punitive damages, CNN continues to stonewall discovery efforts into its ability to pay punitive damages award based on its pending motion for rehearing,” Young’s lead counsel Vel Freedman wrote in a filing requesting the court compel CNN to comply.

 

 

Further in the filing, Freedman also noted the concern that “CNN’s intransigence threatens to derail the trial schedule,” which was currently slated to begin January 6, 2025.

He explained to the court that CNN was dragging their feet by willfully misinterpreting what their agreement was for when financial discovery would begin:

In short, (1) the parties agreed Plaintiffs would not seek financial discovery until after the First District Court of Appeals issued a ruling on CNN’s appeal, and (2) the COurt set a deadline for that financial discovery to conclude. At no point was financial discovery formally stayed, or even agreed to be stayed until the “full determination of CNN’s appeal.

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To date, CNN has refused to produce any documents in response to Plaintiffs’ discovery requests.

“The Plaintiffs’ Motion to compel responses to financial discovery should be denied until—as the parties agreed, and the Court ordered—Cable News Network Inc.’s still-pending interlocutory appeal has been “fully determined,”” CNN’s lead counsel Deanna K. Shullman pleaded with the Florida’s 14th Judicial Circuit in a motion filed two days before the ruling came down.

With the ruling on Friday, CNN’s unilaterally applied trigger for financial discovery was tripped, leaving them no other recourse but to allow the Young to see inside their purse.

As NewsBusters previously reported, the appeals court ruled that punitive damages could be sought (in addition to economic and emotional damages) because Young was able to show malice on behalf of CNN:

Young proffered internal communication showing, at minimum, CNN employees had little regard for him. In those messages, CNN employees called him a “shitbag” and “a-hole” and remarked they were “going to nail this Zachary Young mfucker.” Marquardt referred to him as “fucking Young” and quipped, “it’s your funeral bucko.” (…) Young sufficiently proffered evidence of actual malice, express malice, and a level of conduct outrageous enough to open the door for him to seek punitive damages.

In a post on X, Freedman shared his excitement about the ruling. “The First DCA just denied CNN's motion for rehearing en banc or for certification to the Florida supreme court. Punitive damages stand and we're off to trial!” he said. In a statement to NewsBusters, Freedman said: "We are pleased with the First DCA’s ruling and are looking forward to trial."

 

 

Still, CNN is stonewalling in other areas. They’re refusing to allow anchor Jake Tapper to be deposed as part of the case, and they’re refusing to turn over their journalistic conduct guidelines.

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