Federal Judge Sues for Libel, Court Calls (Some) Arguments on His Side “Frivolous” and “Absurd”
The decision, by Judge Roy Altman (S.D. Fla.) is Monday’s Block v. Matesic; for more on the plaintiff judge (Judge Frederick Block (E.D.N.Y.)), see this N.Y. Times article, also from Monday.
The original libel claim has to do with the plaintiff judge’s battles related to his Florida condominium association board, of all things. A few excerpts, from the discussion of plaintiff’s arguments that defendant must have known that the statements about plaintiff were false or at least likely false (the so-called “actual malice” test):
[1.]
[W]e use “Florida’s substantive law” to determine whether the words of the December 18 Email are competent evidence of express malice. As it happens, they aren’t.
Block says that the “letter itself evinces ill-will” because the Defendants referred to him as “disgruntled” and said that he was “regurgitating” certain information. This “utterly gratuitous” language, Block says, reveals that “the publication’s true, primary intent was to discredit [Block’s] analysis and defame him by way of retribution.” Filling in the gaps for Block, the reasoning seems to be that the Defendants’ words show their ill intent towards him, and that ill intent (he seems to be saying) evinces their actual malice. Block doesn’t argue—nor could he—that the words “disgruntled” and “regurgitate” in any way d
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