Fourth Circuit Defamation Decisions

From the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

In April 2019, the television news program CBS This Morning broadcast interviews with two women who accused Justin Fairfax, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, of sexual assault. Fairfax denied the allegations and subsequently sued CBS Corporation and CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (collectively, CBS) for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The district court granted CBS’s motion to dismiss the complaint in its entirety but denied CBS’s motion for attorney’s fees and costs. The parties now appeal, and we affirm the district court in both respects. Specifically, Fairfax’s complaint fails to plausibly allege that CBS made the allegedly defamatory statements with knowledge or reckless disregard of their falsity, as required to state a claim for defamation of a public official. And the relevant fee-shifting statute by its plain terms is discretionary, not mandatory or presumptive. We therefore must affirm.

The opinion is linked here.

Another decision released yesterday 

In 2019, a jury found Puma Biotechnology, Inc. had defamed Fredric Eshelman and ordered Puma to pay Eshelman $22.35 million in compensatory and punitive damages. This verdict constituted the largest damages award in a defamation suit in North Carolina history. Puma appeals, challenging the jury verdict on a number of grounds, including excessiveness. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the liability verdict but vacate the damages award and remand the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

(Mike Frisch)