12 h, aug 18, 2021 y - DEADLINE Johnny Depp “Gratified” After Amber Heard Fails To Get Defamation Suit Tossed, Again

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“Mr. Depp is most gratified by the Court’s decision,” the actor’s lawyer Ben Chew of the DC office of Brown Rudnick told Deadline tonight with both brevity and understatement.

Johnny Depp is complaining that Hollywood is boycotting him, but a Virginia judge just handed the Minamata star a big win in his $50 million defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard.

Already pursuing $100 million counterclaim, the Aquaman star attempted a Hail Mary move in April to have Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate dismiss the two-year old case based on her ex-husband losing a libel trial in the UK late last year against Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun tabloid’s designation of the Oscar nominee as a “wife beater.”

“The Court is not persuaded by Defendant’s argument that Plaintiff had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the UK action,” Azcarate wrote in a dense opinion released today. Defendant was not a part in the UK action and was not treated as one,”
“Because she was not named a defendant, she was not subject to the same discovery rules applicable to named parties,” the judge determined. “In fact, Defendant could not have been a named defendant to the UK litigation because her allegedly defamatory statements were made after the UK action commenced,” Azcarte said, citing the December 2018 Washington Post op-ed by Heard that set Depp off on this legal pursuit not long afterward.

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