dubious "lawsuit immunity" theory?
Now, the laws vary from state to state, but maybe you should take a look at California Civil Code section 47, which precludes the very type of suit you are talking about. Then see Microsoft Corp. v. A-Tech Corp., 855 F. Supp. 308 (C.D. Cal. 1994). It appears that Lexecon got lucky by landing in Chicago, because before the Supreme Court ruled that the district court's transfer of the case to Arizona was invalid, the Arizona courts summarily threw out Lexecon's claims (884 F. Supp. 1388 (D. Ariz. 1995)), and in fact Milberg won a verdict.
sddt.com
California law precludes a defamation or abuse of process lawsuit based on allegations in a complaint. Period. Now I can't tell you where Pluvia or the "group" is located, those crack Kroll gumshoes will have to find that out on their own. Then the lawyers will have to determine whether the law of that state supports a cause of action against "them."
Oh, and to obtain the true identity of SI posters, SBTK will have to file a lawsuit and attempt to enforce a subpoena to secure the identities of the posters. Have they done that yet? No, and they probably won't, it's expensive and a big pain. It's much easier to issue PRs how they are going to do something about those naughty little posters.
And your theory that Milberg filed a "false" lawsuit against Lexecon in the Lincoln Savings case was not shared by the Arizona courts. In fact, Lexecon settled to avoid a HUGE verdict against it:
Lexecon filed motions to get out of the Lincoln litigation, but Richard Bilby, the Tucson federal judge overseeing the case, refused, citing evidence that Lexecon may have "shut (its) eyes" to the thrift's activities. In June 1992, sensing the possibility of a huge verdict, Lexecon agreed to resolve the allegations against it out of court. The two sides fought for months about terms; ultimately, Lexecon paid the plaintiffs about $700,000 - roughly the amount of the fees it had received from Lincoln.
But the jury verdict awarding Lexecon $45 million rested on Milberg's conduct AFTER it filed the Lincoln Savings complaint against Lexecon, not the allegations contained in that complaint. Face it, you don't have a clue what you are talking about, and the SBTK and Lexecon cases are apples and oranges. |
