Project
Continued From Page 2
process. He said the deadlines sys-
tem had to be changed.
“You had filing deadlines that
were so unrealistic that they
became no deadlines,” he said.
“They became so impossible to
meet you stopped trying to meet
them at all.”
Gottardi said with appellate
counsel frequently new to a
brief post trial, the learning
curve is steep and compounded
by the fact a client and their
family are in crisis.
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‘This could
have broken up
my marriage’
Miller
Continued From Page 5
were not defamatory or false-
light depictions. Further, “the
defendant’s calling her sister-in-
law ‘Jewish broad’ and referring
to her mother-in-law as ‘Ruthie’
lacks a ‘natural tendency to
injure’ or subject the plaintiffs
to ridicule, and the plaintiffs
have not contended that either
characterization is false. The ‘cat
in heat’ comment is mere ‘color-
ful, figurative rhetoric that rea-
sonable minds would not take to
be factual.’”
As to the claims of emotional
injury, Judge Goodman ruled,
“New Jersey courts do not per-
mit claims for infliction of emo-
tional distress to proceed when
the factual basis for the claim is
non-actionable alleged defama-
tion. ... New York courts have
recognized that accusing some-
one of being racist, ‘while highly
objectionable, is neither suffi-
ciently extreme nor outrageous
to support a claim for inten-
tional infliction of emotional
distress.’”
Legally, there are no surprises
here. The decision is consistent
with American libel and First
Amendment law. Croonquist’s
final word on it, however, is refor-
mational—Henry Tudorish, or at
least Youngmanesque: “This
could have broken up my mar-
riage. ... In honour of Henny
Youngman, why should I stop?”
Jeffrey Miller is a writer, free-
lance translator, lawyer, and an
adjunct professor of law and lit-
erature in the law faculty of the
University of Western Ontario.
His latest book is Murder on the
Rebound, a comic novel set in
the legal community.
We want to hear from you!
E-mail us at: tlw@lexisnexis.ca
