Actor Johnny Depp Denied To Appeal By British Court In A Libel Case

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The UK Court denied actor Johnny Depp to file for an appeal in a libel case.
• A 2 judge bench at the court of appeal rejected his application to challenge the lower court judgement passed in the famous libel claim made against Sun tabloid.
• The Sun tabloid is based in the UK which published a story in 2018 which alleged 14 instances of Johnny Depp abusing actor Amber Heard.
• In the UK this trial has been named as the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century.

BACKGROUND DETAILS

• Actor Johnny Depp filed a libel suit against Sun tabloid which had labelled the actor as a ‘wife beater' in a 2018 newspaper article.
• However, the actor lost the suit for damages against the tabloid last November.
• He was also ordered to pay NGN (I.e. News Group Newspaper) £628,000 as legal costs for the trial.
• Judge Andrew Nicol who heard this case denied any ground to appeal but suggested that his judgement could only be overturned by the court of appeal.
• The judge denied on the ground that the allegations levelled against the actor in the 2018 article are substantially true.

FURTHER DETAILS

• In a bid to reverse the judgement in the high profile libel case against the tabloid, actor Johnny Depp applied to the court of appeal in London.
• The court heard his application on 25th March 2021 in the libel case to ascertain whether or not he stood a chance to appeal against the court order.
• In the documents submitted by Johnny Depp's lawyer to the court of appeal, he stated that the order made by Judge Nicol was wrong.

ARGUMENTS & COURT VERDICT

• Lawyer David Sherborn representing the actor argued that the judge failed to examine the competing accounts of each alleged violence and also on what basis did he found them to be proved.
• Whereas lawyer Adam Wolanski who appeared for NGN asserted that the judge had conducted a detailed analysis of evidence and there is no rationale to assume that the judge failed to examine or provide proper reasons for his findings.
• The UK court yesterday dismissed his application for the right to appeal against the lower court judgement that upheld the claims made by Sun tabloid in the libel case.

CURRENT SCENARIO

• The Pirates of the Caribbean star lost a role in the upcoming film ‘Fantastic Beasts' which is an adaptation of a book authored by J.K Roling.
• Actor Johnny Depp has filed a suit against his ex-wife Amber Heard in the US over a 2018 article in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic violence published in Washington Post.