Philly.com has reported that A U.S. District Court judge has sharply reduced a $5 million punitive damage award given to two law school professors by a jury that concluded they were defamed by West Publishing Corp.
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The facts “are not very much in dispute” and favor professors David Rudovsky and Leonard Sosnov, Judge John P. Fullam wrote in his decision this week, but he added that $2.5 million each exceeded the actual damage to the lawyers’ reputations.
Fullam chopped the punitive award for each man to $110,000, which with $90,000 in compensatory damages means each will now get $200,000.
“The jury may have been too much influenced by the net worth” of the company and by West’s conduct during the trial, Fullam wrote, “which seemed to show that the defendants have learned nothing from their experience.”
Here’s the rest of the report but it looks as though West intend to claw back every cent they can going by what their lawyers are saying. Obviously jurors don’t know what they are talking about in West’s eyes.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/119108799.html
West, based in Minnesota, is a major publisher of law books, forms, software, and other legal information whose products can be found in virtually every courthouse.
An attorney for West said Fullam’s decision “was a step in the right direction” but did not go far enough.
“It certainly does not address in any way the plethora of legal and factual issues West raised that require dismissal of the action now,” said James F. Rittinger of Satterlee, Stephens, Burke & Burke. Rittinger said West was considering its legal options.
A lawyer for the professors, Richard L. Bazelon of Bazelon, Less & Feldman, could not immediately be reached for comment.
West named Rudovsky and Sosnov as the authors of a 2008 addendum to a treatise on criminal procedures they had originally written. The addendum contained virtually no new content, and the professors had nothing to do with its compilation. They testified that its inadequate content hurt their reputations.
Rudovsky is a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a prominent civil liberties and civil rights lawyer. Sosnov teaches at Widener Law School.
They wrote the original 1991 book published by West, Pennsylvania Criminal Procedure: Law, Commentary, and Forms. A second edition was published in 2001, and the men had provided annual updates tracking changes in criminal court procedures.
A falling-out occurred in 2008 when West wanted to pay them only $2,500 each, so the men ceased work on the addendum. Nevertheless, West published an update bearing Rudovsky’s and Sosnov’s names on the title page.
The lengthy volume on criminal procedure is typically purchased by law libraries, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and law schools.
