Johnny Depp needs his defamation cake, and he needs to get to eat it too.
“This Courtroom ought to reverse the judgment on Ms. Heard’s Counterclaim as to the April 27 Waldman Assertion, however ought to in any other case affirm the judgment in Mr. Depp’s favor,” declared a submitting at the moment by the ex-Pirates of the Caribbean star in Virginia’s Courtroom of Appeals (learn it right here).
Regardless of virtually sweeping the desk earlier this summer time within the defamation trial towards his Rum Diary co-star and former partner, Depp is decided to not pay Heard the $2 million {that a} Virginia jury oddly awarded her in a countersuit declare.
The Aquaman star claimed that Depp was “vicariously liable” for a trio of damning and defaming statements his shut pal and ex-lawyer Adam Waldman gave to UK tabloid The Day by day Mail calling Heard’s allegations of violence and abuse at Depp’s usually allegedly drunken hand have been hogwash. Particularly, an April 27,2020 article the place Waldman’s characterised Heard’s account of an alleged home violence incident between the excessive profile couple on Could 21, 2016 aa a “hoax” discovered the jury’s favor.
Strolling away from the Fairfax County Courthouse on June 1 with the cheers of followers in his ears, a $10.4 million award in his figurative pocket, and now an accelerating comeback trajectory, Depp and his bicoastal Brown Rudnick LLP workforce have made the primary formal transfer in what has been a protracted anticipated attraction course of from either side.
“The judgment in Ms. Heard’s favor on that lone assertion is misguided,” the 44-page attraction submitting succinctly says. “Even when the Courtroom have been to conclude that Mr. Depp could possibly be held answerable for Mr. Waldman’s allegedly tortious conduct, the trial court docket nonetheless erred in denying Mr. Depp’s Movement for Abstract Judgment and Movement to Strike as a result of Ms. Heard didn’t current proof to ascertain one of many required components of defamation,” the doc provides .”Particularly, Ms. Heard didn’t current proof that Mr. Waldman acted with precise malice when he made the April 27 Assertion.”
Including to that, the attraction submitting from Depp’s Ben Chew and Camille Vasquez-led authorized crew asserts: “Ms. Heard offered no proof at trial that Mr. Depp was personally concerned in directing or making the Waldman Statements. As an alternative, she selected to pursue a pure vicarious legal responsibility declare towards Mr. Depp, contending that he was answerable for Mr. Waldman’s allegedly defamatory statements just because Mr. Waldman was his lawyer.”
Kicking all this off virtually 4 years in the past, Depp sued his ex-wife Heard in March 2019 for $50 million over a late 2018 Washington Submit op-ed below Heard’s byline. Within the article, the American Civil Liberties Union ambassador spoke about changing into a “public determine representing home abuse.” Whereas Heard by no means talked about the one-time Oscar nominee by identify within the piece within the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet, the litigious Depp insisted the op-ed “devastated” his already fading profession. Below what are actually characterised because the orders of publicists and attorneys on the time, Depp was silent throughout he and Heard’s restraining order-loaded 2016 divorce. Nevertheless in his filings and repeatedly on the stand throughout the media saturated trial earlier this 12 months, Depp declared he was actually the one who was abused within the couple’s relationship.
Arising repeatedly quick to get the matter dismissed or moved to a different jurisdiction, Heard countersued Depp for $100 million in the summertime of 2020. That countersuit got here months earlier than Depp’s UK libel case towards the Rupert Murdoch-owned The Solar tabloid for calling him a “spouse beater” proved a dramatic flameout in November 2020.
Presently caught in a sideshow swimsuit between her insurance coverage corporations over paying for her protection and extra, a self declared “stateless” Heard additionally proved unsuccessful in his preliminary makes an attempt to have the Virginia verdict overturned or tossed out. In what has grow to be a bitter and lurid battle performed out on all ranges and platforms, either side filed their project of errors with the court docket final month. The procedural subsequent step within the attraction course of within the Previous Dominion, Depp’s October 11 three-point placement within the docket just about laid out what was extra punctiliously offered at the moment.
Heard’s 16-point project of errors strew the seeds for an bold attraction from her facet that leaves virtually no stone unturned.
Within the context of at the moment’s Depp attraction, merchandise #15 in Heard’s October 11 submitting might show very telling of the place the actress’ formal attraction will put its personal thumb on the dimensions. The Ballard Spahr LLP filed doc famous: “The trial court docket erred in denying the movement to put aside the jury’s verdict and in ruling that the jury’s verdicts in favor of Mr. Depp on his claims towards Ms. Heard and in favor of Ms. Heard on her claims towards Mr. Depp weren’t inherently and irreconcilably inconsistent.”
The pace of American justice being what it’s and the pandemic backlog that also clogs up the courts being what it’s proper now,. count on to see at the least Depp on display lengthy earlier than you see both the actor or Heard again on the stand testifying. Portraying Solar King Louis XV in French director Maïwenn’s upcoming costume drama Jeanne du Barry, current Jeff Beck sideman Depp will likely be making a spotlighted look in Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 vogue present on Prime Video beginning November 9. Alternatively, Heard received’t be again below the ocean and on the massive display within the as soon as once more delayed Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom till the Warner Bros superhero pic lastly comes out on Christmas Day 2023.
