Chicago, Illinois, June 7, 2004

FVLD wins fourth appellate decision in 2004

On June 7, 2004, the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District issued a unanimous order in Brennan v. Kadner, et al, where FVLD represented the defendants in the Circuit Court and on appeal. The appellate court order affirmed dismissal of this defamation and false light suit against Phil Kadner, columnist for the Daily Southtown, and Midwest Publishing. The appeal involved a Daily Southtown column regarding a former school board attorney who had been found by an Elections Board hearing officer to have violated election disclosure laws. Kadner’s column stated that a source believed that the Election Board could refer the plaintiff to federal prosecutors claiming that the attorney used the mails in perpetuating a fraud. Writing for the court, Judge Hall agreed with defendants that the statement constituted a non verifiable opinion: "The statement was not couched in terms of a factual assertion that the plaintiff committed the offense of mail fraud, but as conjecture as to whether the election board could refer plaintiff’s case to federal authorities." The appellate court also held that it was immaterial whether or not the confidential source had actually made the statement to Kadner because "[t]he original source of a statement has no bearing on the analysis as to whether the statement is defamatory." The court also affirmed dismissal of the false light claim on analogous grounds.

Brennan represents the second defamation appeal that FVLD has won in 2004 and the fourth appeal overall that FVLD has won for various clients in 2004 (Williams Electronics Games, Inc. v. Garrity (7th Cir. 2004), Salamone v. Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. (Ill. App. 2004), and International Financial Services Corp. v. Chromas Technologies Canada, Inc. (7th Cir. 2004).

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