American actor, Johnny Depp has fired back at his wife Amber Hear following her ‘desperate’ attempt for a retrial.
Recall that last month, a civil jury in Fairfax awarded $10.35million to Depp after they found he was defamed by Heard when she wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post about domestic violence.
However, earlier this month, Amber Heard’s legal team filed a motion, requesting the court throw out the verdict in her defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp.
According to them, the court need to throw out the verdict including the $10.35 million in damages awarded to the Pirates of the Caribbean star by the jury as it was not supported by sufficient evidence.
The team alleged Depp’s $50 million defamation lawsuit against her was rooted in a 2019 Washington Post op-ed she had written where she opens up about being in an abusive relationship but doesn’t mention Depp by name.
The 43-page document submitted to the Fairfax County Circuit Court Friday also calls “to investigate improper juror service”.
It claimed that public information indicates that a juror who served during the trial was born in 1970, despite court officials listing their birth year as 1945.
The filing argues Depp “proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms. Heard’s statements were actually false.”
Heard’s lawyers argued that the Jury awarding Depp $10.35 million in damages is “inconsistent and irreconcilable” as both she and Depp had defamed one another.
“Mr. Depp presented no evidence that Ms. Heard did not believe she was abused. Therefore, Mr. Depp did not meet the legal requirements for actual malice, and the verdict should be set aside.” the filing reads, per Variety.
Reacting to this, Johnny Depp’s legal team asked Virginia judge to leave his $10million defamation judgment intact, saying it should not be allowed.
According to his lawyers, Heard team’s complaints about the juror’s identity are irrelevant and would have caused no prejudice against the actress.
Depp’s legal team wrote:
“Following a six-week jury trial, a jury of Ms. Heard’s peers rendered a verdict against her in virtually all respects. Though understandably displeased with the outcome of trial, Ms Heard has identified no legitimate basis to set aside in any respect the jury’s decision.
Virginia law is clear that a verdict is not to be set aside unless it is “plainly wrong or without evidence to support it.” Va. Code § 8.01-680.
Here, the verdict was well supported by the overwhelming evidence, consistent with the law, and should not be set aside. Mr. Depp respectfully submits that the Court should deny Ms. Heard’s Post-Trial Motions, which verge into the frivolous.”
The lawyers at Brown Rudnick LLP concluded by again calling Heard’s argument ‘frivolous’.
“For all the reasons set forth above, Mr. Depp respectfully requests that this Court deny Ms. heard’s frivolous Motion in its entirety and reject her outlandish requests to set aside the jury verdict, dismiss the Complaint, or, in the alternative, order a new trial, and investigate Juror 15.” They continued.
Johnny Depp’s lawyers argue that if Amber Heard’s team had concerns, they should have spoken up at the time because it was apparent that the man who served was not 77 years old, even though court paperwork described him as such.
