There is now another motion to dismiss in the Joseph Rakofsky defamation lawsuit. This one was filed Tuesday by defendants Allbritton and TBD.com. Allbritton owns seven broadcast television stations as well as TBD.com. TBD aggregates news stories. This was the post they were sued on, which linked to the original Washington Post article on the subject.
Defense counsel is Jake Goldstein from Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz.
The motion does not address the content of the material posted, but simply attacks the failure to properly serve the papers properly, that TBD.com is not an entity that can be sued, and the fact that Allbritton is not subject to jurisdiction in New York. (The company is based in Arlington, VA.) While the company owns broadcast television stations, none of them are in New York.
If you want to read their papers, this is the relevant document:Memo in Support of Motion to Dismiss
Update 6/25/12: Reply Memo of Law: Reply Memo
Has a schedule been set for briefing and argument of the motions?
I can’t wait to read Rakofsky’s whining responses.
There is a conference coming up this week. With so many lawyers involved and so many motions I won’t predict what will happen.
And if I could predict, I wouldn’t do it publicly anyway.
Not asking you for any nonpublic information. Just keep your fans posted on tjhe schedule when the court sets one.
Small details may get put up on my Twitter feed (@Turkewitz). I’ll use the blog for significant documents.
So what did Mr. Randazza do to Mr. Rakofsky this last week? The fanfare for Mr. Randazza hints that something is afoot! I look forward to further updates…
Eric, thanks for keeping these updates going. I’m one of the named defendants (yay me!) but since I was never properly served and NY can’t obtain jurisdiction over me anyway, I haven’t bothered to respond in the least. But I’m glad to be able to keep up on the case as it heads to the inevitable dismissal.