As I reported last month, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has tentatively dismissed former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider's libel case against the producers of the documentary Quiet On Set: Dark Side Of Kids TV.
During the October 25th hearing, Judge Ashfaq G. Chowdhury ruled in part:
A large portion of Plaintiff’s Opposition argues that defamation can be implied, that the trailer and documentary state or imply Schneider sexually abused children who worked on his show and that Schneider was a child sexual abuser, and how the ordinary viewer understands the trailer and documentary to be defamatory.
The Court notes that even if all of the aforementioned arguments by Plaintiff are true, this is beside the point.
Plaintiff still had the burden to come forward with evidence to set forth the prima facie case for defamation. Plaintiff here did not submit any evidence as to the falsity of the alleged defamation.
Plaintiff came forward with the declaration of Doug Bania; however, this declaration pertains only to damages/harm to Plaintiff. This declaration did not come forward with evidence that the alleged defamation is false.
Plaintiff also came forward with the declaration of John Vaccaro, who is a digital media executive. This declaration also did not come forward with evidence that the alleged defamation is false.
Thus, Plaintiff did not show a probability that Plaintiff will prevail on the merits.
In plain English, Schneider had to prove two things: that the allegations were false and that a reasonable viewer would believe he had committed sexual abuse after watching the documentary. Judge Chowdhury noted Schneider had never denied the allegations in court, instead leaving that to witnesses and surrogates.
He also noted that the prime evidence submitted by Schneider that viewers might believe he had committed sexual abuse was primarily drawn from social media posts and comments posted on YouTube videos, an approach the judge described as a "slippery slope."
The case was tentatively dismissed, with an oral argument on the decision scheduled for Friday, November 8th.
But there have been several developments since then.
Dan Schneider has filed a statement with the court denying any allegations of sexual misconduct with a child:
A motion to strike hearing was scheduled for Friday, November 8th, but both side have filed a stipulation to continue the hearing a week, until Thursday, November 14th.
It's not clear what led to the delay of the hearing. Although in many situations, the delay is the result on ongoing out of court negotiations between the two parties.
