Richard Meyer v. Mark Waid (2018)

[DragoonSierra]

What is baffling to me is that there is no point this going to trial. The Defamation may be hard to prove but Meyer has him dead to rights on the Tortious Interference. Meyers attorneys are going to put the CEO of Antarctic Press on the stand and the guy is going to tell the Jury that Waid absolutely butted into his contract negotations with Meyer and threatened his business if he didn't scupper the deal. They won't even need to add any other evidence to it (but they will). Even an absolutely brain dead panel of normies would be able to agree Waid committed TI. The Defamation claim is just the cherry on top. I have to imagine Waids own lawyers are telling him this too. All Waid is doing is burning more money he does not have on a trial just so he can pay even more money to Meyer. But we are repeating ourselves by opining Waid is a very stupid man. Its just he's so very stupid we can't help but repeat ourselves.

Does the jury get to decide if there is punitive damages or prospective damages or whatever the term is?

 

[Smleman303]

The sad tragedy of why so many trials never get much news attention. Who's really got the patience for this much foreplay?
Don't get me wrong, justice needs to be done right which can mean the legal system burns slow. But by the time something approaching a conclusion is reached Zack could have sired another child, seen it born and had it get to the age where it can actually appreciate how odd it is a guy called Mark Waid has a lawyer called Mark Zaid.

Another one for his model UN family, something waid won't ever have.

 

[soy_king]

Does the jury get to decide if there is punitive damages or prospective damages or whatever the term is?

Yes, but it depends on whether that will be included in the jury instructions.

 

[mindlessobserver]

I would expect they would do the fact finding first, and if they find for Meyer, then there will be another hearing where they get to decide what Meyer gets.

 

[AnimeGirlConnoisseur]

The trial date has been moved up from April 2021.

Jury selection will occur on March 15th, 2021. After that is done, the trial will commence the next business day.

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So, is this going to be put on Zoom and live-streamed (provided the Coof situation doesn't change)?

 

[5t3n0g0ph3r]

So, is this going to be put on Zoom and live-streamed (provided the Coof situation doesn't change)?

That's actually a good question.
I suppose we'd have to look at either Judge Ezra's most recent cases he presided over or cases within the the district to find that answer.

 

[I'm not a Robot]

What is baffling to me is that there is no point this going to trial. The Defamation may be hard to prove but Meyer has him dead to rights on the Tortious Interference.

I can envision a juror questioning why Mark Waid was sued and Antarctic Press wasn't. Antarctic Press actually had a contract with Meyer. If their breach wasn't worth suing over, then why should they care about the guy who induced them to breach?

 

[Tour of Italy]

I can envision a juror questioning why Mark Waid was sued and Antarctic Press wasn't. Antarctic Press actually had a contract with Meyer. If their breach wasn't worth suing over, then why should they care about the guy who induced them to breach?

Practically? Because they wanted them to be a favorable witnesses. You would not have gotten the same slam dunk testimony out of AP’s owner if he was also being sued at the time.

Meyer also understands that the kind of pressure that Waid was putting on them would have been difficult to stand up to. They breached the contract, sure, but YBZ has a plausible reason to not seek damages if he views Waid’s tort to be the main reason the contract was scuttled.

You can have a claim to damages but decide to show mercy and understanding instead.

 

[I'm not a Robot]

Practically? Because they wanted them to be a favorable witnesses. You would not have gotten the same slam dunk testimony out of AP’s owner if he was also being sued at the time.

Their testimony was that they alone made the decision not to publish Meyer's book and Waid had nothing to do with it. When you present that evidence to a layman, they might not see things the way others do.

 

[Tour of Italy]

Their testimony was that they alone made the decision not to publish Meyer's book and Waid had nothing to do with it. When you present that evidence to a layman, they might not see things the way others do.

There is a single line in their deposition where they say that they alone made the decision. The rest of their testimony described Zaid committing tortious interference in excruciating detail. I may be biased, sure, but from what I see the opinion of the breaching party is just one part of the fact pattern that Meyer’s lawyers can hammer to show TI.

 

[DragoonSierra]

There is a single line in their deposition where they say that they alone made the decision. The rest of their testimony described Zaid committing tortious interference in excruciating detail. I may be biased, sure, but from what I see the opinion of the breaching party is just one part of the fact pattern that Meyer’s lawyers can hammer to show TI.

Didnt they also say the pressure put on them from Waid and outside sources kept them up at night. Stuff like calling them up at the dentistry they ran.

 

[AnOminous]

Didnt they also say the pressure put on them from Waid and outside sources kept them up at night. Stuff like calling them up at the dentistry they ran.

Waid's strategy is probably trying to extort favorable testimony from his other victims in the hopes he can get them to commit perjury in his defense.

 

[DragoonSierra]

Waid's strategy is probably trying to extort favorable testimony from his other victims in the hopes he can get them to commit perjury in his defense.

How would that even help? How would that even be relevant to the case?

 

[soy_king]

I can envision a juror questioning why Mark Waid was sued and Antarctic Press wasn't. Antarctic Press actually had a contract with Meyer. If their breach wasn't worth suing over, then why should they care about the guy who induced them to breach?

The nature of the tort itself requires the defendant to be an interfering third party, not the party who breached. A properly instructed jury will be told that. I believe that there would also be some objections by Meyer's counsel if Waid tries to introduce that Meyer's not suing Antarctic Press for breach of contract as evidence, since it's not particularly relevant to the case of a specific instance of TI. Even if it's admitted, it can easily be explained by stating that Meyer is a new publisher with a list of big names in his industry trying to ruin his reputation as someone trying to enter the industry, and how it's important to maintain good relations with those publishers who would be willing to work with him, especially when they've been pressured by big names in the industry not to do business with him, (E= and how suing someone automatically guarantees they will never do business with you ever again).

 

[TheClappening]

The nature of the tort itself requires the defendant to be an interfering third party, not the party who breached. A properly instructed jury will be told that. I believe that there would also be some objections by Meyer's counsel if Waid tries to introduce that Meyer's not suing Antarctic Press for breach of contract as evidence, since it's not particularly relevant to the case of a specific instance of TI. Even if it's admitted, it can easily be explained by stating that Meyer is a new publisher with a list of big names in his industry trying to ruin his reputation as someone trying to enter the industry, and how it's important to maintain good relations with those publishers who would be willing to work with him, especially when they've been pressured by big names in the industry not to do business with him, (E= and how suing someone automatically guarantees they will never do business with you ever again).

At the end of the day, the best explanation is no one is required to sue anyone else.

 

[Thomas Talus]

At the end of the day, the best explanation is no one is required to sue anyone else.

Impleading and indemnification are a thing, although I doubt Waid could use them here.

 

[DragoonSierra]

Impleading and indemnification are a thing, although I doubt Waid could use them here.

i understand what impleading is but what is indemnification and how does that work. I assume it would be like Waid trying to force AP to pay compensatory damages for the contract breach?

 

[Next Task]

I know Waid didn't raise as much money as Meyer, but he still was funded for tens of thousands of dollars. So he had a decent war chest of his own to defend his pride before having to get into personal costs.

Also, as far as I know he doesn't have dependents, unlike Meyer - only a roomful of expensive toys. Plus didn't he just sign up to do some new, high-profile work? Hasn't he been working steadily this whole time? So while this might end up actually biting into his revenue, Waid has shown himself to completely be the kind of man who would rather destroy everything he has rather than grant his enemies anything.

The smart play would have been to apologise and settle, but Waid doesn't think he has done anything wrong - in this case, or likely ever. So off to court it goes, where I suspect he will fight as long as he can to never admit any wrongdoing.

I do so hope he melts down in court. There's nothing he could do to lose the supporters he has who are just as much the narcissistic zealots he is. But him having a King Baby tantrum would be fucking hilarious, almost as much as him publicly getting BTFO and not getting his way. Which will be the court's fault, not his, of course.

 

[AnOminous]

i understand what impleading is but what is indemnification and how does that work. I assume it would be like Waid trying to force AP to pay compensatory damages for the contract breach?

If you're a defendant, you can try to claim that you shouldn't be held liable for damages that were caused by a third party, and even name them as a defendant. This doesn't really work for tortious interference, since the tort by definition involves the damages being actually caused by a third party. The plaintiff has a choice of remedies and chose to go after the interfering party instead of the breaching party.

 

[mindlessobserver]

I know Waid didn't raise as much money as Meyer, but he still was funded for tens of thousands of dollars. So he had a decent war chest of his own to defend his pride before having to get into personal costs.

Also, as far as I know he doesn't have dependents, unlike Meyer - only a roomful of expensive toys. Plus didn't he just sign up to do some new, high-profile work? Hasn't he been working steadily this whole time? So while this might end up actually biting into his revenue, Waid has shown himself to completely be the kind of man who would rather destroy everything he has rather than grant his enemies anything.

The smart play would have been to apologise and settle, but Waid doesn't think he has done anything wrong - in this case, or likely ever. So off to court it goes, where I suspect he will fight as long as he can to never admit any wrongdoing.

I do so hope he melts down in court. There's nothing he could do to lose the supporters he has who are just as much the narcissistic zealots he is. But him having a King Baby tantrum would be fucking hilarious, almost as much as him publicly getting BTFO and not getting his way. Which will be the court's fault, not his, of course.

He's a fool if he does. There is a another reason most civil cases settle before they end up in front of a jury. The entire system is designed to prevent this very thing from happening. After years of shit flinging and expense, the government itself will order and compel citizens to appear before the court to discharge their civic duty as jurors. Not to determine guilt or innocence in a criminal trial, but to sort out a dispute between two men over a fucking comic book.

The US courts very very rarely countermand judgements rendered by a jury for this reason. Summary judgements, procedural shenanigans like Anti-Slapp hearings, jurisdiction arguments, whatever. These can be litigated ad infinitum. But the moment citizens get dragged into court to do fact finding, their judgement is all but unassailable. The amount of money and sand pounding required to overturn civil jury verdicts in America is astronomical. And way out of reach of Mark Waid.

He needs to settle with Meyer now. Free unofficial legal advice for Waid. If this goes to trial and the Jury goes against him, he is not getting it overturned. Not unless he has a million dollars stored somewhere.