Here’s the PDF of James Renner’s response to Kevin Coughlin’s absurd motion to dismiss.
In fact, his own Motion concedes that the matter is judicially ripe (just not personally ripe for Defendant Coughlin) ― “While Plaintiff has … spread rumors about this Defendant in various blogs, this Defendant does not believe there has been sufficient breadth of publication to merit the time and expense that would be necessary in order to pursue a defamation claim against Plaintiff.” Implicit in that statement is an acknowledgement by Defendant Coughlin that he could, presently, prosecute his defamation claims if he so desired.
Not content with one admission that the Defendant’s defamation claim is ripe, Defendant Coughlin admits it again in his closing: “Whether or not Plaintiff has published defamatory matter concerning this Defendant, this Defendant for the time being – and probably for all time – has chosen not to pursue any legal rights or remedies against Plaintiff, if any. “Defendant Coughlin cannot refrain from pursuing any legal remedy if he has none because of ripeness. Simply because the Defendant had made a personal choice not to file litigation regarding his defamation claim before the Plaintiff did does not mean the claim is not ripe. Again, Defendant fails to cite what would need to occur before the defamation claims that Defendant Coughlin was making as early as October 2008 would be judicially ripe—at least nothing beyond his own personal desire to litigate them.
Here’s the zinger.
What the Defendant and his counsel are essentially suggesting to this Court is that if they engage in a campaign of legal intimidation…he is essentially asking the Court to reward himself for his, and his counsel’s, abuse of the legal process to prevent publication of a non- defamatory, but unflattering, portrayal of Defendant Coughlin…
While State Senator Coughlin has the luxury of writing off his prior threats of massively intrusive discovery and “scorched earth” litigation against anyone who gave negative information about him to the Plaintiff as merely hypothetical, the Plaintiff has had to live with the very real wake of Defendant Coughlin’s legal gamesmanship.
Because of his, now-admitted empty, threat of litigation, Defendant Coughlin caused Defendant Times-Shamrock to subject Plaintiff Renner’s story to extraordinary scrutiny designed to encourage the scuttling of any negative story about Defendant Coughlin. Because Plaintiff Renner was fired for writing to his corporate superiors that Defendant Coughlin’s threats were empty and that Coughlin would not actually litigate these claims or prevail if he did (an accurate assessment given the rather stark admissions made in Defendant Coughlin’s Motion), it is anything but a mere hypothetical situation for the now unemployed Plaintiff James Renner.
If Judge Nancy Russo dismisses this case, I will eat my hat. Kevin Coughlin is the next Mark Sanford - Coughlin will soon be answering many uncomfortable questions, about numerous women not his wife, perhaps while wiping away tears, perhaps not.
But instead of the questions coming from the AP or the local paper, to whom, like Sanford, Coughlin could lie with impunity, the questions will be coming from an attorney, Coughlin will be under oath, cross-examined, his every utterance will be further investigated in more depositions under oath, and every answer will be public record in perpetuity.
Can’t. Wait.
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