$140 million dollars can buy a lot of bandanas…and vitamins…and financially struggling wrestling companies that sure could benefit from an aging icon/owner crowning himself the champion one last time (I think Shawn Michaels just vomited).
On the surface, it seems like this plausible nightmare came closer to reality when news broke this week that Gawker’s motion for a new trial in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit had been denied. Unfortunately for the Hulkster, it still remains quite unlikely that he’ll see anywhere near this sum of money, if any at all.
Let’s keep this as simple as possible:
Hulk Hogan picked up a victory at the trial court level by throwing ashes in the eyes of Gawker. The judge failed to see this act (or saw it and didn’t care), but the Florida appeals court was at ringside waiting to overturn the decision. I’m not sure who gets to play Ric Flair in this analogy…probably the lawyers who are making bank off of this circus.
The Florida judge in this case has gone rogue in a legal sense. One of the hallmarks of our country is freedom of the press as established by the First Amendment. One of the checks on freedom of the press is an individual’s right to privacy. The average citizen enjoys a considerable degree of privacy, while celebrities have a lesser degree of protection. The reasoning for this is simple: celebrities profit from exposure and thus must endure some of the negative consequences that this attention entails. As a result, celebrities are held to a much higher standard than ordinary citizens when trying to claim that a news report invaded their privacy.
The issue in Hogan’s lawsuit revolves around the fact that Gawker published a sex tape that was recorded without his knowledge. The argument was that Hogan had an expectation of privacy that was invaded illegally by Bubba the Love Sponge (really?) and that Gawker invaded Hogan’s privacy by publishing the tape. Gawker has argued throughout that this was a newsworthy item and that its right to freedom of the press outweighed the privacy interest of a celebrity.
Cutting through some of the complicated procedural morass leaves us with three major decisions that have occurred thus far. Well before trial, Hogan asked the trial judge to force Gawker to take down the video and the judge granted this request. In response, Gawker appealed this decision.
Here is what’s important in the latest Hulk Hogan vs Gawker decision:
The appeals court overturned the trial judge in a rather nasty opinion. It ruled that the video could stay up because it was speech that was protected by the First Amendment. In other words, the higher court already has ruled on the balancing issue that I discussed above.
With this ruling in hand, Gawker asked the trial judge to dismiss the case entirely. Lower judges are bound to follow the rulings of an appeal court, meaning that this request likely should have been granted. Instead, the judge decided to channel her inner Dave Hebner, except this time it benefitted the Hulkster. The case proceeded and the rest is history…for now.
The most recent ruling in this case again was made by the trial judge. This was expected and mostly inconsequential as it was highly unlikely that the judge was going to overturn her own rulings. Nevertheless, it was a necessary procedural hurdle on the part of Gawker before the real main event.
An appeal is guaranteed and this court of appeals already has ruled in Gawker’s favor on the most significant issue in the case. While nothing is ever a legal certainty, I absolutely would be shocked if the current verdict is permitted to stand.
Hulkamania definitely has run wild through the Florida court system. Nonetheless, Gawker likely will be the party delivering the final leg drop.
