Johnny Depp has appealed a part of the decision in his authorized battle with ex-wife Amber Heard, arguing the one rely of defamation that she gained at their bombshell trial was an “faulty” ruling — and that the jury had “overwhelmingly” favored him.
The 59-year-old “Pirates of the Caribbean” star made the argument in courtroom paperwork filed Thursday in Virginia’s Court docket of Appeals as he seeks to overturn the $2 million jury verdict handed to his ex-wife in June.
Depp was awarded a $10.35 million verdict over claims he was defamed by an op-ed article by which Heard, 36, made claims of home abuse.
However jurors dominated in Heard’s favor on one rely over her claims that Depp defamed her when his lawyer, Adam Waldman, claimed in an interview that her allegations had been a hoax.
“The judgment in Ms. Heard’s favor on that lone assertion is faulty,” Depp’s 44-page appellate temporary stated.
His attorneys argued that Depp couldn’t legally be held answerable for Waldman’s remarks simply because he had been employed by the actor.
“As a matter of regulation, Mr. Waldman is an impartial contractor, whose allegedly tortious conduct shouldn’t be mechanically attributable to Mr. Depp,” the courtroom submitting says.
Depp’s attorneys added that Heard’s declare was “fatally flawed” and the courtroom ought to have granted their consumer’s movement to strike down proof in the course of the trial.
This objection to Waldman’s remarks was the “solely assertion at challenge on this enchantment” given the jury “overwhelmingly favored” Depp of their closing verdict, based on Depp’s facet.
“The jury’s emphatic favorable verdict on all three defamatory statements alleged in his grievance totally vindicated Mr. Depp and restored his repute,” the submitting stated.
“Certainly, Mr. Depp prevailed within the trial courtroom on just about all materials points, and the decision of the jury and judgment of the trial courtroom characterize an clever and well-reasoned resolution on the deserves after a full and honest trial and ought to be largely (although not fully) affirmed.
“Nevertheless, the trial courtroom was confronted with quite a few novel and complicated authorized and factual points, and though the trial courtroom determined the overwhelming majority of these points sensibly and accurately, a couple of rulings had been faulty.”
Depp first signaled his intent to enchantment the decision when he filed a discover of enchantment a few month after the trial.
His discover got here simply in the future after the “Aquaman” actress filed her personal enchantment in a bid to nullify the verdict ordering her to pay her ex $10 million in damages.
A decide had earlier denied Heard’s request for a brand new trial on a number of grounds together with a juror snafu that, she argued, prejudiced the result of the case.
In the course of the six-week trial, jurors had been subjected to a slew of untamed abuse allegations from each events, together with that Depp misplaced the tip of his finger when Heard allegedly threw a vodka bottle at him throughout a combat in Australia in March 2015.
Heard denied she was answerable for the severed finger, claiming that Depp damage himself in a drunken rage and allegedly sexually abused her with a bottle.
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