Johnny Depp's legal team have officially appealed the ruling that he needs to pay Amber Heard $2 million in damages.
Johnny Depp has appealed the "erroneous" decision that awarded Amber Heard $2 million in damages in their defamation trial.
The former couple were embroiled in a six-week trial earlier this year over an op-ed the 'Aquaman' star wrote in 2018 about being a victim of domestic violence, with the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star ultimately winning over $10 million in damages after winning all three of his defamation claims and his ex-wife winning one of her three countersuit claims.
But on Wednesday (02.11.22), Johnny's legal team made a filing in the Virginia Court of Appeals, arguing the 59-year-old star should not be held liable for comments made by his attorney, Adam Waldman, who had told the Daily Mail in comments published on April 26, 2020, that Amber and her friends had set-up his client by calling police with a "hoax" of abuse claims in 2016, remarks the jury decided he had made while acting as an agent for the 'Black Mass' actor.
Johnny's lawyers argued in court documents that, despite an "emphatic favorable verdict" for their client, "the trial court was confronted with a number of novel and complex legal and factual issues, and although the trial court decided the vast majority of those issues sensibly and correctly, a few rulings were erroneous."
They continued: "The judgment in Ms. Heard’s favour on that lone statement is erroneous. Ms. Heard’s claim was fatally flawed, and the trial court should have granted Mr. Depp’s motion for summary judgment and his motion to strike the evidence.
"Ms. Heard presented no evidence at trial that Mr. Depp was personally involved in directing or making any of the three Waldman Statements. Indeed, Mr. Depp testified that he had never even seen the Waldman Statements prior to the filing of the Counterclaim in August of 2020.
"Mr. Waldman is an independent contractor, whose allegedly tortious conduct is not automatically attributable to Mr. Depp" and "no evidence of Mr. Waldman's actual malice was presented at trial" by Heard's legal team.
"This Court should reverse the judgment on Ms. Heard's Counterclaim as to the April 27 Waldman Statement, but should otherwise affirm the judgment in Mr. Depp's favour."
Amber has also lodged an appeal over the verdict, having previously failed in a bid to have a mistrial declared amid claims of jury fraud.
On the same day that Glastonbury welcomed back Margate's adopted sons, The Libertines, Margate itself put on it's very own Leisure Festival as it...
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
What do you do when you feel like your garden ornaments are in grave danger?...
The latest adaptation of Agatha Christie's 83-year-old classic whodunit, this lavish, star-studded film is old-style...
It's the 1930s and a group of strangers from different walks of life board a...
Subtitled Salazar's Revenge in the UK, this fifth film in the long-running series never quite...
It seems Captain Jack Sparrow has been sailing the seas as a pirate for many,...
Forget Davy Jones' Locker and the Fountain of Youth, Captain Jack Sparrow is on an...
It's been five years since the last Harry Potter movie, and J.K. Rowling has been...
Jack Sparrow finds himself in constant trouble with the law; not only is his name...
This much more light-hearted sequel reinvigorates the franchise after Disney's quirky but murky 2010 reboot...
As Alice is once again taken into the magical and mysterious world that she's somehow...
For a biopic of a real-life person, this feels like an oddly standard mob thriller....
Alice once again returns to Wonderland and meets a lot of familiar faces. This time...
Edward Scissorhands is no ordinary boy, as his name may tell. Created by a genius...