Dan Rather Lawsuit Against CBS TOSSED In Entirety
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/29/dan-rather-lawsuit-agains_n_303134.html>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/29/dan-rather-lawsuit-agains_n_303134.html
Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS has been tossed in its entirety, the
New York Observer's Felix Gillette reports.
Just last week, New York State Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman
ruled that the case could proceed, and indicated that Sumner Redstone
may have to testify.
Tuesday, however, an appellate division of the court threw the case
out entirely.
The Observer quotes from the decision:
"For the reasons set forth below, this Court finds that the
motion court erred in denying the defendants' motion to dismiss the
claims for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty, and
therefore we find the complaint must be dismissed in its entirety,"
reads today's decision.
"At the outset, we find that Supreme Court erred in declining to
dismiss Rather's breach of contract claim against CBS," the court
added. "Rather's cause of action for breach of fiduciary duty must
also be dismissed."
Rather claims he was wrongfully dismissed from the network over his
controversial report about President Bush's service in the National
Guard.
Rather's lead attorney, Martin Gold of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
LLP, released a statement indicating that he plans to appeal the
dismissal:
"We are extremely disappointed with the Appellate Court's
decision. We believe the decision is incorrect on a number of grounds
and, accordingly, we intend to ask the New York Court of Appeals to
review it."
CBS released the following statement on the decision:
CBS is pleased by the appellate court's unanimous ruling today
dismissing all of Dan Rather's claims. CBS's position on each claim
was upheld, as we have said they would be for the past two years.
The court agreed with CBS that none of Mr. Rather's causes of
action state a valid claim. The court agreed that this has never been
anything more than a contract dispute and that Mr. Rather did not and
could not plead that there was any breach of his contract. The court
unequivocally rejected Mr. Rather's allegations of fraud and breach
of fiduciary duty.
As far as the recent claims of a purported fraud which Mr. Rather
filed against CBS and against Leslie Moonves and Andrew Heyward, Mr.
Rather's attorneys already said in open court that they are identical
to the claims dismissed today. Based upon this unanimous decision by
the appellate division, that final remnant will be dismissed as well.
This lawsuit is now effectively over. As the court unanimously
concluded, "we find the complaint must be dismissed in its entirety."
Read the decision below (embedded via DocStoc, document via TVNewser):
Read more at:
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/29/dan-rather-lawsuit-agains_n_303134.html>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/29/dan-rather-lawsuit-agains_n_303134.html
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