More on the NXIVM Metroland lawsuit
NXIVM's $65 million lawsuit against Metroland was filed over two weeks ago in Niagara County Court-- but so far publisher Stephen Leon hasn't been served.
Leon took a few minutes to talk about the lawsuit with AOA this afternoon.
News of the suit came as a surprise to the folks at Metroland.
Leon says he had no idea it was coming. "Nor did we have any indication for two and a half weeks that a suit had even been filed...We learned about this when a blogger who checks court reporter stuff sent us an email."
Leon says he can't speak to NXIVM's motives for suing the paper, but according to the suit itself, Metroland's part in it boils down to one line in one story. Leon says he's not really worried about the content of the suit.
So are lawsuits a common occurrence at Metroland? Not really, Leon says.
"Like any other company, we've had lawsuits for one reason or another-- or threats of lawsuits, but nothing much." He says the paper was hit with a libel suit before he owned it and he remembers a $1 million suit when a guy was thrown out of a bar at an event co-sponsored by Metroland." Neither of those suits went anywhere.
Will we be hearing more about NXIVM from Metroland?
"We'll continue reporting on them as we see fit," Leon says.
Metroland is planning to write about NXIVM's lawsuit in Thursday's issue.
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Comments
Looking at the complaint, it seems like alot of it rests on Metroland quoting Rick Ross, whom NXIVM already sued (and lost, and lost, and lost). I'm no attorney, but arguing "They quoted those people who said bad things about us even though the court already said we couldn't sue them for the bad things because of that freedom of speech thing." doesn't seem like a really strong case for a lawsuit.
Somebody's lawyer is getting rich(er).
... said S. Lithgow on Mar 31, 2009 at 10:42 PM | link
Yes the lawyers get richer, but not before NXmumble further shows the public that if you speak out against them you risk getting sued.
... said komradebob on Mar 31, 2009 at 11:06 PM | link
It's Niagara County, not Niagra County.
You've made the most common spelling error for Niagara.
The slient a gets everyone!
Editors: It's fixed now. Thanks for the heads-up.
... said CJ on Apr 2, 2009 at 7:36 AM | link