Hi, and welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, at the request of user Samdu on the reddit, we update you on the latest developments in a lawsuit we initially analyzed a few months ago, that being Richard Meyer, the leader of the Comicsgate movement, suing Mark Waid, a DC/Marvel writer for defamation and tortious interference with contract.
As you'll recall, Mark Waid and others put in calls and public pressure to a publisher named Antarctic Press to encourage the publisher to not put to print Richard Meyer's Jawbreakers comic, which was a response to what Meyer saw as progressive bias in the comics industry. Meyer ended up having to rely on Indiegogo to publish his comic after Antarctic Press dropped him, and the public feud between these men went into court.
Six months ago the case was still early, so I analyzed the likelihood of success of the defamation and tortious interference with contract claims based on the initial pleadings of the parties. Now a few months of discovery have occurred, and most notably, the deposition of Mark Waid was published in court records a couple weeks ago. To put it mildly, the deposition was not great for Waid.
Before getting into the details of the deposition, a little explanation. In U.S. courts, fact finding is usually done by a process called discovery, in which both parties get to request information and documents from the other party while disclosing their own relevant information and documents. Both parties also usually conduct witness interviews as well, and these are known as depositions.
It turns out that Mark Waid crumbled a bit under that pressure of questions from opposing counsel. He admitted to contacting the potential publisher to explain the controversial views of Meyer before quote "we burned the place to the ground" meaning the industry and public taking it out on Antarctic Press. He essentially admitted to using his position as a man in the industry to influence Antarctic Press to forego publishing Meyer's Jawbreakers comic. Waid simply could not explain away a lot of public audio of him admitting at comic conventions that he participated in stopping Jawbreakers from being published.
Waid also couldn't corroborate that death threats were made against him by the Comicsgate community, a defensive contention made by Waid in this case. Plus, Waid could not explain away text messages in the record where he basically begs Antarctic Press to not hang him out to dry by saying that Waid bullied or coerced the publisher into not publishing Jawbreakers, and offers to use his industry ties and prowess to print an interview with Antarctic Press to promote their brand after they make the decision to drop Jawbreakers. These text messages all but confirm on the written record that Waid tortuously interfered with the Meyer-Antarctic contract, and Waid couldn't provide any other valid explanation in the deposition.
Thus, my initial opinion of this case has taken a strong turn, as I now think the tortious interference with contract case goes from what I thought was a toss up to clearly in Meyer's favor. I'm still not sold that the defamation claim will work, but as long as Waid produces so much damning evidence against himself in all these texts, convention brag speeches, and depositions...even that claim may be possible for Meyer's counsel to prove. This is precisely why we have discovery to bring out all the facts available, as it can really change a case.
We will continue to keep our eyes on this big case in the comics industry, but as of now, I expect Meyer will win on at least one of his claims. The new Bottom Line is, while these legal claims can be difficult to prove all the elements of, the modern era where every conversation is recorded or put in discoverable writing like text messages makes it a lot easier for good attorneys to dig out the facts and evidence to prove wrongdoing did occur. And when you have a witness in a deposition like Waid who crumbles in response to pressure and questions, a hard case to make can flip very quickly into a win.
If you want a long form explanation of the deposition transcript and recently published evidence, check out Nick Rekieta on YouTube. He's not one of my favorites, but he does a good job explaining the current status of this case for those who want more. Thanks again to the subreddit for the suggestion to revisit the ever-changing comics case.
----------------------------------
Do you have a question? Send it in!
Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy
No comments:
Post a Comment