In case you missed it, the New York
Appellate Division (1st Department), issued its ruling affirming the
decision of New York Supreme Court [1] Judge Barbara Kapnick to dismiss, with
prejudice, Howard Stern’s $300 million lawsuit against Sirius/XM. [2]
The Appellate Division’s decision was as
elegant in its simplicity as in its utter destruction of Stern’s claim that the
contract was plain on its face that he was owed all that money for meeting subscriber-based
performance bonuses based on his theory that any subscriber to the Sirius or XM
service after the date of the two companies’ merger should have counted toward
the bonus thresholds outlined in the contract.
In legal circles, the Appellate Division’s
terse, one paragraph ruling is akin to smacking down a pro se litigant who filed a frivolous lawsuit. It is not just that Kapnick’s
ruling, which dismissed Stern’s lawsuit at the summary judgment phase [3] was
upheld, it is that the Court did not even go through the formalities that
typically attend appellate decisions – no recitation of the procedural history,
the facts of the case, hell, there is barely any legal precedent cited – just a quick cite to one case and a statement
that the plain language of the contract reads in the complete opposite way that
Stern claimed.
The Court’s ruling is a full and utter
loss for Stern that makes this matter disappear forever. And for this, I can
only wonder what Stern and his agent, Don Buchwald, spent in legal fees.
1 In New York, the trial court is
referred to as the “Supreme Court.”
I love that Wiggy got reamed! I bet he is so miserable today sitting all alone at his Hamptons estate while his horse faced wife is away "visiting grandma."
ReplyDeleteThe price of wig glue will skyrocket now
ReplyDeleteHow cute, stalker Oral and Anal fans came to talk about "the wig". Yup, Stern wears a wig.........and most of the world knows who he is, not like your lobster girls. Hoo Hoo for the win, LOL!!!
ReplyDeleteI generally do not moderate or delete comments unless they are clearly spam or abusive. The prior comments were no worse than your standard fare on Stern Fan Network.
DeleteSFN is dead, scarylawyerguy. Mutt killed SFN and no one goes there anymore. Dawgs is now the biggest stern-related board. Get with the times!
DeleteAs for Stern & wig, it's a well known fact that he wears a wig. Many people speculate that wig glue might be slowly poisoning him. Who knows... but the man is really losing his marbles.
Is the language of the latest decision a record for least number of words used to kill off such a high dollar complaint? The decision had 171 words in it divided into 300,000,000 , each word in the decision cost the WIG $1,754,386.96
ReplyDeleteOUCH
Will Howard be liable for Sirius' legal fees?
ReplyDeleteUnless NY civil procedure has a "loser pays" rule, no. General rule (at least in NJ) is victorious party would have to show vexatious or frivolous litigation by losing party. My guess is that each party assumes the costs. The more interesting question is whether Howard and/or Don paid directly for their costs or if they had some sort of insurance policy that pays for litigation costs. I have to imagine their attorneys range up six figures, easy.
DeleteScary, the Notice of Entry document filed by Sirius XM's counsel has the "one paragraph ruling" attached to it -- it bears page numbers 19 and 20. What/where are pages 1-18? I can't believe an appellate panel would dispose of this case without even generating an opinion; it's not some prisoner lawsuit filed in crayon, for godssakes. Maybe the opinion was ordered not to be published? (Do they do that in New York?)
ReplyDeleteI just saw that - I am not sure. It is possible that the opinion is unpublished (they do that here in New Jersey). I did notice the judgment was "with costs" so in answer to a comment above, sounds like Howard and Don are on the hook for Sirius's court costs (though guessing this may be limited to the costs associated with the appeal).
Delete