Victor Mignogna v. Funimation Productions, LLC, et al. (2019) - Vic's lawsuit against Funimation, VAs, and others, for over a million dollars.

That nag letter is already 5 months old.
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Hope this doesn't end up like Ya Bio Zack, you know, dropping the suit because they found success and sticking it to the other party wasn't worth it.
If it comes back I don't think there will be much more to it other than settlement. Vic has done a remarkable job to land on his feet and turn it all around. Kinda hard to prove damages when you're still in the industry and directing a new company. (Even if it is per se defamation)
 
If it comes back I don't think there will be much more to it other than settlement. Vic has done a remarkable job to land on his feet and turn it all around. Kinda hard to prove damages when you're still in the industry and directing a new company. (Even if it is per se defamation)
I disagree. Winning the Powerball after someone steals your life savings doesn't mean you weren't harmed by the theft. Rebuilding your career after it's maliciously destroyed doesn't mean there wasn't harm there either.

To calculate damages you have to compare him immediately prior to and immediately after the defamation, not all the hard work he's put in since then (and getting his story out via the lawsuit probably hasn't hurt him either).
 
As emotionally unsatisfying as that is as a result, the fact is that this Vic bullshit directly led to the whole Funimation brand being buried at a crossroads at midnight with a mouth full of garlic and a stake through its heart.

So I hope it was worth it for them.
If Vic wins any of the appeals, won't Crunchyroll's image get damaged too?
 
I disagree. Winning the Powerball after someone steals your life savings doesn't mean you weren't harmed by the theft. Rebuilding your career after it's maliciously destroyed doesn't mean there wasn't harm there either.

To calculate damages you have to compare him immediately prior to and immediately after the defamation, not all the hard work he's put in since then (and getting his story out via the lawsuit probably hasn't hurt him either).
But a lottery is detached from the theft. If Vic is shown to have a thriving career, it means that the assertion that his life was ruined isn't as damaging as he'd claimed.

Now, the difference between Ya Boi Zack and Vic, is that Vic's defamation was definitely per se, because he was called a sex offender, where as for Zack, it would have been a separate legal question, meaning there was more incentive to settle. For Vic, it would still be worthwhile to punch back at the allegation.
 
If it comes back I don't think there will be much more to it other than settlement. Vic has done a remarkable job to land on his feet and turn it all around. Kinda hard to prove damages when you're still in the industry and directing a new company. (Even if it is per se defamation)
I'd almost argue that he has even more of a case because they're already running a smear campaign against the new studio.
 
But a lottery is detached from the theft. If Vic is shown to have a thriving career, it means that the assertion that his life was ruined isn't as damaging as he'd claimed.

Now, the difference between Ya Boi Zack and Vic, is that Vic's defamation was definitely per se, because he was called a sex offender, where as for Zack, it would have been a separate legal question, meaning there was more incentive to settle. For Vic, it would still be worthwhile to punch back at the allegation.
The damages that he suffered were the loss of his roles at Funimation and the director position he was poised to get. He didn't get those back. He'll never get them back. He's not claiming that they made him unemployable, he's claiming that they made him unemployable in the industry that he was working, with the companies that had established themselves as players in the industry. And they did. Barring something absolutely crazy, like him winning his lawsuit and everyone at then-Funimation-now-Crunchyroll suddenly deciding that they want to make money more than they want to save face and they're willing to forgive the guy who just shoved their faces in their own shit and made them eat it, he's not getting his old roles back.

If he then goes independent and successfully launches a company that manages to gain a foothold in the same industry, that doesn't reflect on his damages or lack thereof, it just indicates that maybe the companies that dominated the industry weren't as safe from competition as they thought.
 
But a lottery is detached from the theft. If Vic is shown to have a thriving career, it means that the assertion that his life was ruined isn't as damaging as he'd claimed.

Now, the difference between Ya Boi Zack and Vic, is that Vic's defamation was definitely per se, because he was called a sex offender, where as for Zack, it would have been a separate legal question, meaning there was more incentive to settle. For Vic, it would still be worthwhile to punch back at the allegation.
You're forgetting the details.
Rial & Marchi were not just saying that Mignogna was a sex pest, but they also said he PHYSICALLY HARMED THEM (THERE'S THE DEFAMATION). @Ron Toye & Rial interfered with Vic's contract with a convention (see Chris Slatosch's affidavit/unsworn declaration).
Then, compare Funimation's statement to Rooster Teeth's:
https://roosterteeth.com/post/51982081
https://archive.ph/K58xL
Rooster Teeth Statement.PNG
Funi Twitter Statement.PNG
(the following tweets are part of a reply chain, therefore part of the same statement):
You tell me which has more damaging effect to his reputation in the industry at large when the biggest player makes statements to above and beyond just saying "We will no longer be working with Mr. Mignogna."
 
Última edición:
Vic was also replaced in his popular roles of Qrow and Broly. Also probably not getting his role back as Ikkaku Madarame in Bleach. More damages.
Not to mention the actions of the Defendants, either by their statements or throwing what clout they have as Vic's co-workers and peers by liking #KickVic tweets, has been used as justification for convention owners across the country to disinvite Vic or outright ban him from future conventions. Some of whom have invited Vic in the past, only to cave from pressure by either guests aligned with the Funimation clique or by the literal who's on Twitter that are spurred by them (honestly, the ones that cave from the latter are spineless cowards).
 
this does not include the shrinking circle & monopoly🤡 of voice acting /anime by a few large conglomerate companies.

conjecture of " he took no damage" for stating he working with a new studio is a fact-finding issue.

how far does vic need to show that starting or working with a new company is counted as damage?
when you are in a shrinking sector?
1. Continued harassment made him unable to find work
2. some of the industry blacklist him from work - which will be hard to prove.
3. he has some documents or memos stating because of the ongoing legal issues he can't be hired by the common anime industry due to relationship with sony & funimation.
4.? does vic investing in the new company to still be able to voice work count as damage if it's documented?
 
If Vic wins any of the appeals, won't Crunchyroll's image get damaged too?

Depends if anything comes back against them (since they acquired Funimation, they'd be responsible for it now) or not. There's a possibility that they're in the clear even if Rial and Toye are still on the the hook, but if the original ruling in their favor is overturned I suspect that there's a possibility they come to the table and just pay Vic to go away and not talk about it. Someone higher up the corporate ladder has to draw some parallels between this and the recent Depp case and have the good sense to get out.

Although the company is using Crunchyroll branding, a lot of the previous Crunchyroll personnel were let go during the merger. I have a feeling that as bad as Funi sucks, someone took at look at both companies and came to the conclusion that at least the people at Funimation didn't piss away a bunch of money making High Guardian Spice and decided that they were lesser of two evils.
 
Although the company is using Crunchyroll branding, a lot of the previous Crunchyroll personnel were let go during the merger. I have a feeling that as bad as Funi sucks, someone took at look at both companies and came to the conclusion that at least the people at Funimation didn't piss away a bunch of money making High Guardian Spice and decided that they were lesser of two evils.
I'm not sure if they bother in Texas, but someone could probably file a motion to substitute Crunchyroll as a successor in interest or some other such thing.
 
I'm not sure if they bother in Texas, but someone could probably file a motion to substitute Crunchyroll as a successor in interest or some other such thing.
There's (mostly lawltwitter) jokes about Ty Beard being the worst lawyer to take on Vic's defamation suit.

If appeals come back and they have to untangle who has liability now that Funimation no longer exists, suddenly Mr. I-Do-Business-Shit-For-A-Living Beard would be invaluable.
 
There's (mostly lawltwitter) jokes about Ty Beard being the worst lawyer to take on Vic's defamation suit.

If appeals come back and they have to untangle who has liability now that Funimation no longer exists, suddenly Mr. I-Do-Business-Shit-For-A-Living Beard would be invaluable.
Its also fairly straight foreword, not like that nightmare of the Johnson and Johnson talcum powder case. From what I saw, the Funimation purchase was your standard issue stock buy. Assets and Liabilities are assumed purchased equally. Where it could get complicated is how MUCH liability was purchased. In theory, its can't be anymore then what Funimation itself was worth. But that is diving deep into the weeds.
 
If it comes back I don't think there will be much more to it other than settlement. Vic has done a remarkable job to land on his feet and turn it all around. Kinda hard to prove damages when you're still in the industry and directing a new company. (Even if it is per se defamation)
This is simply untrue. Vic has entered the Twitch scene (but is not wildly popular because he is a boomer and nobody who has any idea of what they're doing is helping him to actually succeed so he's basically just treating it like Unlocked streams and missing out on a lot of revenue potential), has managed to secure some small cons and one or two middling sized cons, but still constantly loses out on con invites directly and provably because of the defamation, and he has been given one role in a new studio that has not yet tried itself by fire. He did have numerous roles all through the industry and more importantly had very big roles like Broly that were lost to him specifically because of the defamation. He has not gotten them back.

This is basically the same reasoning Chupp gave when he said 'Vic didn't suffer damages at Kamehacon because even though his contract was broken, it cost him large amounts of funds to get a new contract, and this new contract was materially worse than the first, he still had a contract with Kamehacon, therefore he lost nothing'. 2 years later Vic finally starting to re-establish himself through alternative methods that have not yet even taken off is nowhere near equivalent to 'I did not lose these things in the first place'. In fact, even if he were to get all of his roles back right now and be allowed back into the convention scene, they would still have damaged him because he lost out on the very important year of 2019 where he had a huge number of conventions he was scheduled to go to in conjunction with the release of Broly, and he lost out on at least two years worth of salary for voicing people like Qrow, and many video game voices.

"I've rebuilt a smaller home" does not equate to "That person did not burn my house down."
 
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