By Dominic Tayler-
Johnny Depp’s lawyers argued on Monday that his $10.35 million defamation verdict against ex-wife Amber Heard should be upheld, and the argument that the wrong juror showed up for the trial be dismissed.
Heard’s legal team requested a mistrial after alleging that a 77-year-old had been summoned to court to serve on the jury, but instead a 52-year-old living at the same address had shown up and participated.
Heard is attempting to overturn the court ruling that saw Depp win his $50 million in damages over a 2018 opinion-editorial essay by Heard in The Washington Post, in which she said she had become a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”
The essay never mentioned Depp by name, but his attorneys said it indirectly referred to allegations she made against him during their 2016 divorce.
In a filing on Monday, Depp’s lawyers argued that Heard has not shown that she suffered any prejudice due to the error, and that she waived her right to object by not raising the issue sooner.
“Unsurprisingly, Ms. Heard cites to no case law to support her argument that the service of Juror 15 if he is not the same individual that the Court assigned as Juror 15 somehow compromised her due process and would warrant the drastic remedy of ‘setting aside the verdict and ordering a new trial,’” Depp’s lawyers wrote. “Ms. Heard makes no showing of any prejudice, and accordingly her speculative arguments fail.”
The U.S actress’s legal team has cited ‘newly discovered facts’ as grounds that the verdict in the defamation trial should become invalid and a new trial be held.
Heard’s lawyers have called for the verdict should be set aside and a new trial should be ordered because one of the seven jurors in the case never received a summons- an objection that has prompted rebuttals from Depp’s legal team.
In a filing on Monday, Depp’s lawyers argued that Heard has not shown that she suffered any prejudice due to the error, and that she waived her right to object by not raising the issue sooner.
“Unsurprisingly, Ms. Heard cites to no case law to support her argument that the service of Juror 15 if he is not the same individual that the Court assigned as Juror 15 somehow compromised her due process and would warrant the drastic remedy of ‘setting aside the verdict and ordering a new trial,’” Depp’s lawyers wrote. “Ms. Heard makes no showing of any prejudice, and accordingly her speculative argument.
The trial between the two actors has revolved around a piece Heard wrote for the Washington Post in 2018 about being a public figure representing domestic abuse.
While Depp was not named in the article, he claimed it implied he abused her during their marriage and was therefore defamatory.
Heard was ordered to pay around $10 million in damages to Depp and he $2 million to her.
Depp’s legal team say that lawyers for Heard ‘had more than enough time’ to investigate the jurors, and that the individual who ended up on the jury when another had been summoned was still ‘qualified to serve as a juror’.
They add that the request for a mistrial came on 8 July, seven days after the court appointed deadline to dispute the verdict.
The filing of Depp’s official response said: “Though understandably displeased with the outcome of trial, Ms. Heard has identified no legitimate basis to set aside in any respect the jury’s decision.
“Mr. Depp respectfully submits that the Court should deny Ms. Heard’s Post-Trial Motions, which verge into the frivolous”.