Punitive Damages Award in Mann v. Steyn Reduced from $1M to $5K,
Readers of the blog likely recall this lawsuit, brought by climate scientist Michael Mann against columnist Mark Steyn, blogger Rand Simberg, the National Review, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (see our various posts on the subject). The National Review and CEI had been granted summary judgment in 2021, but in January 2024, the jury found Steyn and Simberg liable for defamation, to the tune of $1 compensatory damages + $1M punitives against Steyn, and $1 compensatory + $1K punitives against Simberg.
For a very quick summary of the facts, from Justice Alito’s 2019 dissent from denial of certiorari:
Penn State professor Michael Mann is internationally known for his academic work and advocacy on the contentious subject of climate change. As part of this work, Mann and two colleagues produced what has been dubbed the “hockey stick” graph, which depicts a slight dip in temperatures between the years 1050 and 1900, followed by a sharp rise in temperature over the last century. Because thermometer readings for most of this period are not available, Mann attempted to ascertain temperatures for the earlier years based on other data such as growth rings of ancient trees and corals, ice cores from glaciers, and cave sediment cores. The hockey stick graph has been prominently cited as proof that human activity has led to global warming. Particularly after emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit were made public, the quality of Mann’s work was called into question in some quarters.
Columnists Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn criticized Mann, the hockey stick graph, and an investigation conducted by Penn State into allegations of wrongdoing by Mann. Simberg’s and Steyn’s comments, which appeared in blogs hosted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and National Review Online, employed pungent language, accusing Mann of, among other things, “misconduct,” “wrongdoing,” and the “manipulation” and “tortur[e]” of data.
For more details, including more on the “pungent language” (such as “[c]omparing ‘Climategate’ with the then-front-page news of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky”), see Competitive Enterprise Institute v. Mann (D.C. 2016).
Today’s long decision (over 14,000 pages) by D.C. Superior Ct. Judge Alfred Irving in Mann v. National Review, Inc. declined to disturb the jury’s findings that defendants had libeled plaintiff—including that their statements were recklessly or knowingly false—but sharply reduced the punitive damages awards (as our own Jonathan Adler predicted shortly after the verdict):
“The Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit a State [and the District of Columbia] from imposing a ‘grossly excessive’ civil punishment upon a tortfeasor.” …
“The federal excessiveness inquiry appropriately begins with an identification of the state interests that a punitive award is designed to serve.” Here, such interest is marginal at best. While “[t]he states have long protected the important reputational interests of its citizens in following the strict liability common law of defamation[,]”neither Dr. Mann nor Mr. Steyn are citizens of the District of Columbia and the defamatory speech at issue here did not take place in the District of Columbia, but rather in the online ether, without
Article from Reason.com
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