Huon v. Breaking Media et al

Filing 204

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS held on January 10, 2013 before the Honorable John J. Tharp, Jr. Court Reporter Contact Information: Carolyn Cox, Carolyn_Cox@ilnd.uscourts.gov, (312) 435-5639. IMPORTANT: The transcript may be viewed at the court's public terminal or purchased through the Court Reporter/Transcriber before the deadline for Release of Transcript Restriction. After that date it may be obtained through the Court Reporter/Transcriber or PACER. For further information on the redaction process, see the Court's web site at www.ilnd.uscourts.gov under Quick Links select Policy Regarding the Availability of Transcripts of Court Proceedings. Redaction Request due 4/29/2013. Redacted Transcript Deadline set for 5/9/2013. Release of Transcript Restriction set for 7/8/2013. (Cox, Carolyn)

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1 1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION 2 3 4 MEANITH HUON, 5 Plaintiff, 6 7 vs. BREAKING MEDIA, et al., 8 9 10 11 12 13 Defendants. 09:08:30 09:08:32 09:08:34 17 18 19 Chicago, Illinois January 10, 2013 9:00 o'clock a.m. APPEARANCES: For the Plaintiff: HUON LAW FIRM BY: MR. MEANITH HUON P.O. Box 441 Chicago, IL 60690 (312) 405-2789 For the Defendants Breaking Media, Inc., David Lat, Elie Mystal, John Lerner, And David Minkin: MANDELL MENKES LLC BY: MR. STEVEN P. MANDELL One North Franklin, Suite 3600 Chicago, IL 60606 (312) 251-1000 Court Reporter: MS. CAROLYN R. COX, CSR, RPR, CRR, FCRR Official Court Reporter 219 S. Dearborn Street, Suite 1420 Chicago, Illinois 60604 (312) 435-5639 15 09:08:27 Docket No. 11 C 3054 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS - STATUS BEFORE THE HONORABLE JOHN J. THARP, JR. 14 16 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 For Defendants Gawker Media, Jezebel.com, Elizabeth Denton, Irin Carmon, and Gabby Darbyshire: LYNCH & STERN LLP BY: MS. AMANDA SZUCH MLINARCIK 150 South Wacker Drive Suite 2600 Chicago, IL 60606 (312) 346-1600 AND GISKAN, SOLOTARTOFF ANDERSON & STEWART BY: MR. DAVID L. FEIGE 11 Broadway, Suite 2150 New York, NY 10004 (212) 847-8315 3 09:22:10 1 09:22:10 2 THE CLERK: 11 C 3054, Huon v. Breaking Media. 09:07:53 3 MR. HUON: Good morning, your Honor. Meanith, 09:07:57 4 09:07:58 5 THE COURT: Good morning. 09:08:09 6 Counsel in court, could you enter your appearances, 09:08:12 7 09:08:12 8 09:08:17 9 09:08:21 10 09:08:22 11 09:08:25 12 Mandell on behalf of Breaking Media, Inc., David Lat, Elie 09:08:32 13 Mystal, John Lerner, and David Minkin. 09:08:35 14 09:08:41 15 behalf of Gawker Media, Gawker Media, Inc., Entertainment 09:08:42 16 Technologies, Elizabeth Denton, Irin Carmon, and Gabby 09:08:46 17 Darbyshire. 09:08:46 18 THE COURT: Okay. And, Mr. Huon, you already... 09:08:49 19 MR. HUON: I have seen their motion, Judge. There is 09:08:50 20 a couple, two items, housekeeping items. One is attached to 09:08:55 21 their motion to dismiss is a truncated trial transcript and 09:08:59 22 it's part of their exhibit. I had brought a prior motion 09:09:02 23 before a magistrate judge to redact the name of the 09:09:05 24 complaining witness and their home town. That motion was 09:09:08 25 granted. As part of that motion, I also asked for them to (The following proceedings were had in open court:) M-e-a-n-i-t-h, Huon, H-u-o-n, for the plaintiff. please. MS. MLINARCIK: Amanda Mlinarcik on behalf of Gawker Media, Jezebel.com, Nick Denton, Irin Carmon, and Gabby Darbyshire, local counsel. MR. MANDELL: Good morning, your Honor. Steve MR. FEIGE: And by telephone, Judge, David Feige on 4 09:09:11 1 produce the entire transcript. The reason being -- and they 09:09:14 2 have the entire trial transcript. The reason being is if they 09:09:18 3 are going to assert the reporter privilege, the reporter 09:09:20 4 privilege only applies -- it doesn't apply if they don't fully 09:09:24 5 disclose everything that took place in the original 09:09:26 6 proceedings. The other thing is most of these articles were 09:09:28 7 about the consent defense. The consent defense never went to 09:09:32 8 the jury. That's in the trial transcript. 09:09:33 9 09:09:36 10 issue discovery to get that. Now, since you have denied my 09:09:39 11 motion to conduct limited discovery and since I can't get the 09:09:42 12 parties to do a 26(f) conference, I have an issue with 09:09:45 13 discovery. I need that trial transcript in order to respond 09:09:49 14 to the motion to dismiss. That's one of the first issues. 09:09:51 15 09:09:54 16 09:09:56 17 09:10:04 18 09:10:07 19 09:10:10 20 the defendants to answer -- to disclose under 7.1 or what 09:10:16 21 their affiliates are which is the reason we are back here 09:10:19 22 because I had to identify the issues of citizenship. Breaking 09:10:24 23 Media, I acknowledge when they were served or in the suit, 09:10:26 24 they appeared correctly as Breaking Media, L.L.C. Now they 09:10:29 25 appear as Breaking Media, Inc. The magistrate judge at the time recommended that I THE COURT: All right. We will get to that in just a second. With respect to the motion -- let me -- just preliminarily, where do we stand on service? MR. HUON: That's the second issue. You had ordered 5 09:10:30 1 09:10:33 2 have appeared as Gawker Media. It's very difficult -- we know 09:10:36 3 that there are several Gawker entities. There's Gawker Media, 09:10:40 4 Inc., Gawker Technologies, Gawker, L.L.C. It's very difficult 09:10:44 5 to tell who they are responding for and they have not answered 09:10:46 6 the 7.1 disclosure. Breaking Media has. 09:10:52 7 THE COURT: Hold on. Hold on. 09:10:53 8 MR. FEIGE: Sure. Sorry, Judge. 09:10:55 9 MR. HUON: I think that they should be ordered to 09:10:58 10 state who they're responding for because that would allow me 09:11:01 11 to move forward as to whether I am going to default the ones 09:11:04 12 who I think that they have already appeared for by appearing 09:11:07 13 as Gawker, and that would also allow me to identify who I need 09:11:10 14 to serve. I have sent waiver of service of summons to Gawker. 09:11:14 15 But by appearing as Gawker Media, it's difficult to tell who 09:11:18 16 they're here for. 09:11:19 17 THE COURT: All right. Mr. Feige. 09:11:22 18 MR. FEIGE: Yes, if I could just respond. The 7.1 09:11:26 19 disclosures, I'm sorry, that should be filed within the hour. 09:11:29 20 They're done and should be being filed now. I can just answer 09:11:33 21 those fairly simply. 09:11:35 22 09:11:41 23 which has one member, that being Gawker Media Group, Inc. 09:11:45 24 Gawker Media, L.L.C., is the sole member of Gawker 09:11:50 25 Entertainment, L.L.C., Gawker Sales, L.L.C., and Gawker Gawker has waived service as Gawker Media, and they Gawker Media Group, Inc., owns Gawker Media, L.L.C., 6 09:11:53 1 Technology, L.L.C. I am appearing for all of them and, of 09:11:57 2 course, the individual defendants. 09:11:59 3 THE COURT: All right. 09:12:00 4 MR. FEIGE: I think that's sufficiently clear. I 09:12:05 5 09:12:07 6 THE COURT: I think it is. Mr. Huon. 09:12:09 7 MR. HUON: I didn't have time to catch all of that, 09:12:11 8 Judge. If he could put it in a letter and send it to us. 09:12:15 9 Last time the magistrate judge ordered him to put something in 09:12:17 10 09:12:17 11 09:12:22 12 09:12:23 13 09:12:24 14 09:12:25 15 THE COURT: You will get the disclosure. If you have 09:12:27 16 any further questions, it doesn't sound like there's any issue 09:12:31 17 there that we should have a problem cooperating identifying 09:12:36 18 exactly who is represented. 09:12:37 19 MR. FEIGE: No, I don't expect so. 09:12:39 20 THE COURT: All right. Now, with respect to the 09:12:43 21 trial transcript, do either of the defendants have or groups 09:12:47 22 of defendants have a response? 09:12:50 23 09:12:55 24 talking about that happened in front of the magistrate. 09:12:58 25 Obviously, he was the defendant in the proceeding. We have know there's a lot of Gawkers in there. a letter. THE COURT: Will your disclosure that's going to be filed -MR. FEIGE: It will contain all of that, yes, and it should be there within the hour. MR. MANDELL: I don't frankly recall what counsel is 7 09:13:04 1 spent money to obtain the transcript. You know, I am not 09:13:10 2 opposed to sharing the transcript with him. It would be nice 09:13:13 3 if he shared the cost of the transcript. 09:13:17 4 09:13:20 5 09:13:21 6 MR. HUON: Well, when I called the court reporter, 09:13:24 7 the entire trial transcript is $5,000. The other thing is, 09:13:28 8 you know, I am pro se. They're relying on this, so as 09:13:35 9 officers of the court, they have a duty to disclose the whole 09:13:37 10 09:13:40 11 09:13:44 12 have not provided something they are required to provide, you 09:13:47 13 have to raise that point, but they certainly are entitled to 09:13:50 14 support their motion to dismiss with whatever it is that they 09:13:53 15 think is relevant. If you think there's some other portion of 09:13:58 16 a trial transcript that is relevant, the fact that they have 09:14:02 17 introduced it might give you an opening to include that in 09:14:04 18 your response, but it's not their responsibility to do that 09:14:07 19 for you. 09:14:09 20 09:14:12 21 out what his costs are. In the worst case scenario, he can 09:14:15 22 perhaps produce one page where the Court makes it clear that 09:14:19 23 the consent defense never went to the jury, and that one page 09:14:22 24 might be a dollar for the copy. 09:14:25 25 THE COURT: Is there any reason, Mr. Huon, you can't obtain the transcript yourself? facts. They can't just disclose selective things. THE COURT: Sure, they can. If you think that they MR. HUON: I could propose talking to counsel to find THE COURT: Why don't you all have a discussion about 8 09:14:27 1 that because I am not clear exactly what you're talking about. 09:14:31 2 See if you can work it out. I will tell you what I tell all 09:14:35 3 counsel. I expect counsel to cooperate and be reasonable so 09:14:38 4 we can get things done efficiently, and efficiency includes 09:14:45 5 economically, but having said that, the defendants don't have 09:14:48 6 any right to pay for your lawsuit here. 09:14:50 7 MR. HUON: I understand. 09:14:51 8 THE COURT: Now, with respect to the briefing on the 09:14:54 9 09:14:56 10 09:15:00 11 Judge, I am just asking for 60. I got War and Peace and Anna 09:15:07 12 Karenina to respond to here. They are massive briefs. I am 09:15:08 13 asking for 60 days. I don't have three law firms working on 09:15:11 14 the file, and the original briefing schedule before the case 09:15:13 15 was transferred, I think we have similar times as well. 09:15:16 16 09:15:17 17 09:15:20 18 THE CLERK: March 12th. 09:15:23 19 MR. HUON: Is there a way that you can move it by a 09:15:26 20 week so I can try to work out the trial transcript issue, just 09:15:30 21 give us a week to work out the trial transcript issue, 60 days 09:15:35 22 from a week from now? 09:15:35 23 THE COURT: No, 60 days. That's plenty of time. 09:15:38 24 On that score, the motions by both groups of 09:15:42 25 motions, what do you need to respond? MR. HUON: Since they had 53 days to put it together, THE COURT: All right. It's your case. You are the plaintiff. 60 days to respond. defendants for leave to file memoranda in excess of 15 pages 9 09:15:45 1 are granted. That's docket entries 176 and 181. Mr. Huon, I 09:15:51 2 will give you leave to file a consolidated response memoranda 09:15:55 3 to both motions of up to 35 pages. That's I think equal, 09:16:02 4 approximately, to the total number of pages in the two 09:16:04 5 motions, and then reply briefs will not exceed 15 pages. 09:16:09 6 09:16:11 7 09:16:13 8 09:16:17 9 09:16:21 10 transferred to you. Breaking Media filed an 18-page brief and 09:16:25 11 then they filed a 17-page chart. I think that circumvents the 09:16:32 12 page requirements because I am responding to a 17-page chart. 09:16:39 13 09:16:41 14 of pages they are talking about facts and allegations that are 09:16:44 15 very inflammatory that's not relevant. The Seventh Circuit 09:16:46 16 has said there is no such thing as a defamation outlaw. It 09:16:50 17 takes one sentence to cry fire in the theater; it takes pages 09:16:54 18 to explain that there is no fire. They have done that before. 09:16:56 19 What happened before the case was transferred to you, I had 09:16:58 20 responded to them separately. I have no problems responding 09:17:00 21 to them separately, but the Court actually gave me 30 pages. 09:17:04 22 I am not saying I am going to use 30 pages, but if he's got a 09:17:07 23 17-page chart plus an 18-page brief and Gawker Media has a 09:17:13 24 22-page response brief and two pages are devoted to name 09:17:17 25 calling where they are moving from lawyers' advocate -- MR. HUON: That's the last issue I wanted to address, if I can have your indulgence. The issue with the briefing schedule, this came up with the original briefing schedule as well before it was Now, with respect to Gawker Media, the first couple 10 09:17:20 1 THE COURT: How many pages do you think you need? 09:17:22 2 MR. HUON: I wanted to have the option of a 30-page 09:17:25 3 09:17:26 4 09:17:28 5 two ways. I will give you up to 50 pages in a combined brief 09:17:35 6 or 30 pages individually. 09:17:38 7 MR. HUON: Thank you, Judge. 09:17:39 8 THE COURT: That should be more than adequate. You 09:17:41 9 09:17:44 10 MR. HUON: That is, Judge. 09:17:44 11 THE COURT: In light of the expanded pages, I will 09:17:47 12 give each of the defense groups 20 pages for reply. 09:17:52 13 Anything else we need to address? 09:17:54 14 MR. HUON: Do you want us to hold off on a 26(f) 09:17:56 15 09:17:57 16 09:18:00 17 are going to get at issue before we start talking about moving 09:18:03 18 ahead with discovery. 09:18:06 19 09:18:07 20 is 10 pages, and it really is just for the benefit of the 09:18:12 21 Court because he has allegations against Breaking Media alone 09:18:17 22 of over 50 alleged defamatory statements. 09:18:21 23 MR. HUON: Sorry. I misspoke. 09:18:23 24 THE COURT: That's fine. I will give you -- both 09:18:26 25 response for each side. THE COURT: I will give you -- you can do it one of have 60 days. That should be more than adequate. conference? THE COURT: Yes. We are going to get straight -- we MR. MANDELL: I don't want to quibble, but our chart sides should have ample pages to make your points, and we will 11 09:18:31 1 take them under advisement. We will try to address things 09:18:36 2 expeditiously, so if the case is able to move forward, we can 09:18:39 3 get started on that. 09:18:41 4 09:18:43 5 09:18:50 6 MR. FEIGE: I don't believe so. 09:18:50 7 THE COURT: I don't think we set a schedule. We 09:18:52 8 should definitely do that. How long -- well, we gave Mr. Huon 09:18:55 9 60 days. How long do you need for the reply? 09:19:01 10 09:19:05 11 09:19:06 12 09:19:10 13 09:19:11 14 09:19:15 15 give you 28 days on the reply in light of the extended period 09:19:18 16 for the plaintiff's response. 09:19:21 17 MR. FEIGE: Great. That's great. 09:19:22 18 MR. MANDELL: Thank you. 09:19:23 19 THE COURT: Thank you all very much. 20 MR. MANDELL: One more thing, your Honor. I may have missed it, but did we set a deadline for the reply briefs? MR. MANDELL: I will say subject to what Mr. Feige says, 21 days. MR. FEIGE: I was going to say 30, but I am fine -- I am okay with either. THE COURT: Well, to avoid coming back in, I will (Which were all the proceedings had in the above-entitled 21 cause on the day and date aforesaid.) 22 I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript from the record of proceedings in the above-entitled matter. 23 24 25 Carolyn R. Cox Official Court Reporter Northern District of Illinois Date

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