Andrew Dalton, Associated Press Posted Monday, May 2, 2022, 8:26 PM EDT Last Updated on Monday, May 2, 2022, 8:26 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The jury on Monday won a landslide victory for the Kardashians in the case of former reality star Black China against them.
The jury in Los Angeles found that none of the members slandered Chyna, nor did they interfere in her contract by convincing E! network to cancel its reality show “Rob & Chyna”.
The four Kardashian defendants – Kim Kardashian, Chris Jenner, Chloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner – attended most of the trial, but when the verdict was read, they were all in New York at the Met Gala, where this year’s theme was “Golden Glitter.”
Chaina was in court for the verdict. She had no visible reaction.
After about 10 hours of deliberations, jurors decided on the jury’s long form that Kardashian often acted in bad faith, finding that they were not justified in telling Rob & Chyna executives and producers that China had abused their son and brother. Rob Kardashian. But they found that this had no significant effect on China’s contract or the show’s fate, and she was not awarded compensation.
Officers from E! the network that aired the show testified that Rob & Chyna ended because the relationship ended, not because of the defendants’ actions.
Kardashian’s lawyer, Michael G. Rhodes, said the family was “violent” when he called them with the news.
“They are very happy,” Rhodes said. “I hope they enjoy the gala in New York.”
Chyna’s lawyer Lin Chiani said that based on her reading of the verdict, “the jury found that Chyna did not physically abuse Rob Kardashian” and the jury found that all four defendants deliberately interfered in her contract with E! network. ”
“We will appeal the other issues,” she added.
The jury was sent twice to discuss further when it was found that on some issues in the case against Kylie Jenner the vote was 8-4, when at least 9-3 was required in the civil case, but they quickly returned with 9-3 votes. and the result remains unchanged.
Jurors heard the defamation case against Chris Jenner, Chloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner after a judge dismissed part of the case against Kim Kardashian in the middle of the debate.
All four women testified during the nine-day trial.
The trial focuses mainly on allegations that China forcibly attacked her then-fiancé and reality TV colleague Rob Kardashian one night and in the morning of December 2016. He testified that she twice held a gun to his head, wrapped a cable for charging the phone around it. his neck and he was hit with a metal stick. She testified that she put the rope around his neck and held the gun playfully while the two celebrated the resumption of their reality show, and when the holiday became a dispute, she was never violent against him.
But the legal issues the jury considered were related to the consequences of this battle. The jurors had to decide whether each of the defendants had deliberately lied about the abuse when talking about it with the producers and executives watching Rob & Chyna, or disseminate information about it with reckless disregard for the truth. And they had to decide for each defendant whether these communications were illegal interference with China’s contract to participate in the show.
In her closing remarks, Chiani said it was unreasonable for the four women to believe that her client had violently attacked her ex-boyfriend Rob Kardashian.
“He had no sign of him,” Chiani told jurors. “There was no call to the police, no trip to the hospital, not even a band-aid.
At the time of its closure, Rhodes said the women had every reason to believe the stories of the attack by Rob Kardashian and Chris Jenner’s longtime boyfriend Corey Gamble, who arrived on the scene and ended the dispute.
“Do you remember what Rob looked like at the booth?” His pain was real, “Rhodes said. “This is a real family. Yes, they are famous, but they are real people. He was very badly injured here. “
During the trial, it turned out that Gamble would be the key witness for the defense. But TV presenters and producers, whose testimonies were often technical and completely without drama, will prove more important in the jury’s findings, which have made women’s stories of violence largely irrelevant.
The jurors were free to make a separate decision – to drop some of the Kardashians, but not others.
Instead, they cleaned up the family and gave nothing to China.
She demanded as much as $ 108 million in the case. A phase of punitive damages that would be triggered by the plaintiff’s victory will not happen now.
The 5-year lawsuit overcame many obstacles – including dismissal requests and negotiations to settle the dispute between the two parties – and there was a very good chance that we would even get to court.
But the last hurdle that convinced the jury turned out to be too much to overcome.
However, the case is not completely over for China. Separate charges in the case against Rob Kardashian, with him as the sole defendant, have been split into a separate trial, which is likely to begin in about a week.
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