Victor Mignogna v. Funimation Productions, LLC, et al. (2019) - Vic's lawsuit against Funimation, VAs, and others, for over a million dollars.

[Skeptical Idiot]

Also that cite sucks.

This is the case (which is not even a case but an ORDER from a trial court in another county) Casey is citing:

View attachment 776966

So it says more or less the opposite of what Casey is claiming. First there isn't even a rule, but even if there were one, it would be that the party who has to prove something gets to do it first, i.e. the plaintiff.

I agree the cite is of no precedential value. It's really not even persuasive unless you're trying to tell your judge that you consider him an idiot, so he should not make his own decision, but instead rely on the opinion of this co-equal judge who said something in another case. A sitting, non-Appellate judge's order might be persuasive when you have--for example--a federal order and the state court judge is interpreting federal law, But not with two Texas judges looking to Texas state law.

I do think you might be reading too much into the quote from the order about Plaintiff having the right to go first. The fact is the Plaintiff in that case noticed the deposition first (as Casey likewise contends that he noticed Vic's deposition first in his opposition) and I think that's key. Casey likely relies on this quote from the order,

For Ty's purposes, this may all be moot as the sixty-day window to move will likely come before anyone is deposed. Casey hasn't moved to extend the time to bring as TCPA motion yet as far as I know.

My guess would be he's going to be annoyed with both parties just for even having to have a hearing on this, and it's a question as to who he views as more at fault. He may dress down both sides, but I'd be more interested in what he actually rules on the discovery issues.

I agree. My prediction and it may not be popular is that the judge will essentially order the parties to pick deposition dates. If Casey is right and he noticed Plaintiff's deposition first, I expect he will let that deposition go first. I doubt the judge will factor in the TCPA issue. He'll more likely just look at is as defendants have sixty days.

I have no clue on the Protective Order given Casey's procedural mumbo-jumbo. Generally, I think a protective order is appropriate as financial information may be discussed in deposition and provided in discovery responses (if simply as a measure of Vic's damages) and that should be confidential information, which is an appropriate subject for a protective order. Also, there may be discussions regarding third parties and sexual activity that is consensual or non-consensual and a court would likely enter a protective order to protect these third-parties from having their private information available.

In other words, Defendants argument that Vic somehow wants a protective order to hide his "bad acts" is bullshit.

 

[pearlslam]

Are any Kiwis going to make it to the hearing tommorrow?

Maybe? I don't know how my day is going to be tomorrow morning, but I am within driving distance if that helps.

 

[AnOminous]

I agree. My prediction and it may not be popular is that the judge will essentially order the parties to pick deposition dates.

Then Ty should offer a completely unlimited selection of dates after the TCPA deadline.

I'm actually not sure why there even should be any discovery before a motion to dismiss is decided. What's the rush? If they don't want to do that, they can waive it.

Litigation boutique. What a pretentious way to try to dress up "overpriced ambulance chaser" IMO. I learned something new today.

It's a pretty standard phrase for what is often a small firm that mainly litigates, generally on a specific subject matter.

 

[HTTP Error 404]

For Ty's purposes, this may all be moot as the sixty-day window to move will likely come before anyone is deposed. Casey hasn't moved to extend the time to bring as TCPA motion yet as far as I know.

"But Ty AGREED to let us file the TCPA late. Therefore, there's no deadline."

 

[Make Anime Illegal]

Casey should just SAY the TCPA deadline is extended. Because "you heard him say" it, so it must be true.

 

[Kosher Salt]

I do think you might be reading too much into the quote from the order about Plaintiff having the right to go first. The fact is the Plaintiff in that case noticed the deposition first (as Casey likewise contends that he noticed Vic's deposition first in his opposition) and I think that's key. Casey likely relies on this quote from the order,

Casey's notice of deposition included a subpoena deuces teucum, which under the rules of procedure requires a 30 day notice. A notice of deposition without a subpoena deuces teucum only requires 10 days notice.

The notice of deposition that Ty sent did initially include a subpoena deuces teucum, but when Casey Erick objected that they had not been given enough time to produce the documents (the date which Ty noticed for MoRon's depositions only gave them 12 days notice), Ty stated that it had been included by mistake and withdrew the subpoena deuces teucum. That meant that MoRon's depositions could be scheduled as early as 10 days after the notice, and there was no reason why they had to wait until after Vic's deposition.

Also, Nick pointed out on his stream that Tarrant County's local rules require the notice of deposition to include a certificate of conference stating that a discussion with opposing counsel had been had, or had been attempted, to decide upon a mutually agreeable date and location for the deposition. Casey didn't confer with Ty before noticing Vic and he didn't include any certificate of conference in the notice. The Tarrant County rules specifically state that the court must quash the deposition if they failed to do this. Casey's notice wasn't properly served, and there's no basis for him to claim that he called "dibs" by properly noticing Vic first. He didn't. (Although Ty didn't either; as his letter to Casey said, he treats the opposing counsel as well as they treat his client.)

 

[Spectre_06]

Then Ty should offer a completely unlimited selection of dates after the TCPA deadline.

In which case they come back and bitch that Ty is preventing them from being able to file a "timely" TCPA/anti-SLAPP motion by blocking their attempt to depose before the deadline hits. You know a judge has only a certain amount of patience, I know it, Ty knows it, Nick knows it...hell, Casey has to know it. But he's playing a dangerous game where his clients are simply too stupid for their own good, and he's bound to what they want, within reason. At this point we can all safely say that he probably has a significant retainer paid for, so when he loses (and he knows he'll lose) he's still paid.

I'm not saying it'd work, but considering the bullshit we've seen thus far it's not outside the realm of possibility. Plus he'd probably try to argue "we agreed to postpone the deadline in our correspondence", because this guy has habitually countered his own statements in the same legal documents.

Also, Nick pointed out on his stream that Tarrant County's local rules require the notice of deposition to include a certificate of conference stating that a discussion with opposing counsel had been had, or had been attempted, to decide upon a mutually agreeable date and location for the deposition. Casey didn't confer with Ty before noticing Vic and he didn't include any certificate of conference in the notice. The Tarrant County rules specifically state that the court must quash the deposition if they failed to do this. Casey's notice wasn't properly served, and there's no basis for him to claim that he called "dibs" by properly noticing Vic first. He didn't. (Although Ty didn't either; as his letter to Casey said, he treats the opposing counsel as well as they treat his client.)

Casey doesn't seem to know the actual procedures, despite claiming to know them. You get the hint this guy tells prospective clients "I helped write the book on this" during the initial consultation.

Another point to bring up is that if there really was a "first to say dibs deposes first" rule, the plaintiff would never be able to do it, because then the defense just files the motion alongside their answer. In all, it's just a stupid point on his part.

 

[GethN7]

Since we are speculating, based on that non crazy filing by Funimation and Casey's continued crazy, here's how it looks to me;

Marchi: Still praying this will all go away and will likely lose by default because she's an idiot.

Funimation: Someone had a brain, realized this whole mess was radioactive, and their lawyer is working out a settlement deal with Ty because they want out of this as cleanly as possible and throwing the other idiots under the bus is a good way to do so.

MoRon: Desperately trying to find something to impeach Vic's credibility and thus have bet on an insane long term gamble that has a poor chance of working because what they have is just that bad. Casey seems to be partially a genuine idiot filing bullshit and partially realizing he needs to do something desperate to win, but given his chances, I bet he's just fleecing his dumbass clients because his chances just suck no matter what.

 

[ErbBetaPatch]

I said it before, I'll say it again. Casey has no interest in allowing discovery to proceed before filing the tcpa. We saw a glimpse of what the plaintiffs have with the Toye texts. If either party gets deposed and they have to reveal the info that they have, it's going to be a lot harder for the case to get dismissed. The only logical reason for not doing this is if he accepts that the tcpa won't work and is hoping to win on a motion for summary judgment.

 

[Facts Over Feels]

MoRon: Desperately trying to find something to impeach Vic's credibility and thus have bet on an insane long term gamble that has a poor chance of working because what they have is just that bad. Casey seems to be partially a genuine idiot filing bullshit and partially realizing he needs to do something desperate to win, but given his chances, I bet he's just fleecing his dumbass clients because his chances just suck no matter what.

Even if they do manage to find something to impeach Vic's credibility somehow, that would still only defeat the defamation case. They are still fucked on the TI claims, especially Ron.

 

[BigDuckEnergy]

Just a friendly reminder for people to temper their expectations on how long it will take for info to come out on today's hearing. Maybe @AnOminous can give a realistic expectation but I'm guessing the earliest we will have anything concrete is Nick's stream tonight and that's probably only if he gets info from Ty.

 

[Wilhelm Bittrich]

The other name on the doc is interesting. http://www.lynnllp.com/attorneys/rebecca-l-adams . Graduated from Canoe U and then went to Stanford where it appears her hobby was injecting botox. All of it.

Litigation boutique. What a pretentious way to try to dress up "overpriced ambulance chaser" IMO. I learned something new today.

Her CV isn't that of a top dog but it isn't unimpressive either, B.S. from the US Naval Academy, J.D. from Stanford.
Boutique law firms ain't ambulance chasers, quite contrary tbh.
The difference between a general law firm and a boutique law firm is that the latter one has specialised themselfes on one or a few specific fields of expertise (like e.g. litigation or labor and employment law and so on).
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP is a law firm with over 300 attorneys specialised in litigation. Another bouttique law firm is Littler Mendelson with 75 offices all around the world and est. 1500 attorneys.
Funimation hiring Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst LLP which is a boutique law firm specialised in litigation shows that Funi knows what they're doing contrary to the other MoRons.
IMHO that could end in a settlement pretty fast between Funi and Vic.

 

[Wake me up]

I'm not seeing why it would be an issue even if Ty had discussed his strategy, tbh. It wouldn't be prejudicial to the defendants in any way.

If he's going to criticize Ty in any way, it's for freely associating with someone who is constantly shitting on his clients online (not defaming them, per se, though) since they made themselves public figures. I doubt that's basis for a mistrial but it could hurt Ty's reputation with the Judge.

So basically it's business as usual: Casey knows he has no chance of providing a proper defense for an over-the-top textbook case of defamation, with millions of dollars in damages on the line for this clients, and is just throwing every single thing he has into the mix and hoping one of them will stick. I'm not sure we can call this a strategy as much as a desperation act but if something does stick, it's a win for him nonetheless.

It's not like anything he'd do moving forward is going to make the case worse than they already managed to give him from the start, so he might as well try everything and anything.

 

[GethN7]

If he's going to criticize Ty in any way, it's for freely associating with someone who is constantly shitting on his clients online (not defaming them, per se, though) since they made themselves public figures. I doubt that's basis for a mistrial but it could hurt Ty's reputation with the Judge.

Considering that Ty was very careful not disclose anything he shouldn't to Nick until he could legally do so, kept his mouth shut most of the time while Nick did his own thing, and given the sheer idiocy said clients have displayed, I doubt it's going to matter.

Ty and Nick haven't done anything I'm aware of that would compromise their own careers nor Vic's case, as the facts remain the same no matter what.

Ty made all official legal communications independent of Nick, Nick has been acting as a public commentator, and even Nick tried to warn the dim bulbs on the other side to lawyer up while they could while doing so based on his take on the situation.

tl;dr: Ty and Nick will be fine, this is irrelevant to the clients of Erick being idiots.

 

[Wake me up]

Ty and Nick will be fine, this is irrelevant to the clients of Erick being idiots.

Preaching to the choir man: I did go to (some) length about "throwing everything into the mix to see what sticks" for exactly that reason.

 

[GethN7]

Preaching to the choir man: I did go to (some) length about "throwing everything into the mix to see what sticks" for exactly that reason.

Realized that only shortly after I posted. I earned that late rating.

 

[Kosher Salt]

In which case they come back and bitch that Ty is preventing them from being able to file a "timely" TCPA/anti-SLAPP motion by blocking their attempt to depose before the deadline hits.

That would be rather strange, considering that they were "unavailable" for nearly the entire month of May, apparently just to block Ty's attempt to depose MoRonica before they could depose Vic (or at all, since it's obvious that they meant to immediately file their TCPA motion after deposing Vic).

 

[Not A Bug]

It is clear on the other side of Texas. I love you fellow Kiwis, but not enough to drive 16 hours

I'm about 45 minutes away from the court house but I simply can't make it.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Probably not. From the PULL and Tumblr citations, and now trying to implicate Nick and falsely claiming that BHBH is selling "Fear the Beard" merch, leads me to believe that Casey's team hasn't researched shit about their case and are mostly going off of what La Choy and Monica tells them.

Why is he trying to implicate Nick? Because Ron has a feud with him.
Why would he be claiming that BHBH would be selling merch? Probably because Ron told him so.

Think about it, BHBH had Nick, Vic's fanatic twitter spergs and the Kiwifarms as their eyes, autistically archiving and forwarding every tweet the defendants made. Casey only has what his clients told him and what the idiots on PULL say (who sometimes still think that Nick is Vic's lawyer).

Just kind of want to point this out when you consider and contrast the filings by BHBH versus Elrick's.

We know he's had one paralegal or junior attorney on this with him due to the logo on youtube.

One.

In comparison we know BHBH has put at least a couple of the amazons (with one leading the case), Jim Bullock and Tyberius Beard himself onto this case to a degree. Because BHBH operates on a team basis as opposed to an assignment basis.

They've also had the equivalent of probably a dozen or more paralegals workforce from our good selves who've had great fun logging and archiving all the crap these soy soaked fools have screamed out. We've probably saved Vic tens of thousands of dollars worth of work and made his case to the point Ty can keep refiling as often as he likes with new tweets for a good few rounds for each of them, and until the next millenia in Mr/Ms. Ron Toye's case.

This is also partially the reason why they have such a shitty filing, they're relying on clown world clients and what they can point them to for evidence of Vic's wrongdoing. The Attorney they had probably only read a few bits of the tumblr and PULL thread before simply shrugging and saying it proved his character was dodgy.

The gulf in the arsenals is absolutely enormous.

 

[Slab Bulkhead]

Confirmed from Nick's Discord: With the hearing today, the judge made a ruling that Vic will be deposed first, however no TCPA can be filed until after both defendants have also been deposed.