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Libel Suit Tossed Out
Philadelphia actor, boxer and personality Randall "Tex" Cobb probably will not be receiving $10.7 million that he earlier won in a libel suit.
The original award to Cobb was to come from Sports Illustrated Magazine.
The judgment was to punish Sports Illustrated for print that as a professional fighter, Cobb was part of a "fix" in a boxing bout between himself and Paul "Sonny" Barch.
The magazine also reported that Cobb had used cocaine after the fight.
The judgment that he won from a jury was just overturned, unanimously, by a three-judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.
Their decision stated that Sports Illustrated could not be held liable for recklessly disregarding the ruth.
The magazine had researched a "comprehensive" investigation to verify their allegations.
Freedom of Speech Impaired "The (earlier) juries (in Cobb's favor) cannot stand without significantly infringing on the "breathing space" that the Supreme Court has carved out for the freedom of speech," Judge Comelia G. Kennedy wrote.
George Bochetto of Bochetto & Lentz, of Philadelphia, Cobb's attorney, intends to appeal by asking the full Sixth Circuit Courts to rehear the case.
He also has an option of bringing the matter directly in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cobb's case centered around his claim that Sports Illustrated's writers avoided learning the truth, on purpose, allegedly. They did not interview the referee or the ringside officials at the fight with Barch.
Bochetto also claimed that Barch had a prior criminal record, and was lacking in credibility, and that Sports Illustrated writers ignored that background.
Cobb's acting background included roles in films that were box office hits.
They included: Eddie Murphy's "Golden Child" and the Coen brothers' "Raising Arizona."
He claims he was also earning about $100,000/year for appearing in such films as "Ernest Goes to Jail," "Police Academy 4" and "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective."
After the article appeared in Sports Illustrated Cobb's movie offers, in effect, disappeared. In the recent past, he allegedly has received just one invitation for a role, and that was offered at only $10,000.
Public Figure
The Appeals Court also wrote that Cobb failed to meet the standard of actual malice, and that he was a public figure.
Cobb had acknowledged that he was a public figure.
On the drug allegation, Cobb admitted to the court that at one time he did have a cocaine problem, but at the time of the alleged "dive" by Barch, Cobb had been off cocaine for four years.
Judge Kennedy, in his summary against Cobb, and for Sports Illustrated, wrote:
"A failure to investigate before publishing, even when a reasonably prudent person would have done so, is not sufficient to establish reckless disregard."
"Instead, there must be sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendant in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of his publication. Thus, the failure to investigate, alone, will not support a finding of actual malice, but the purposeful avoidance of the truth may so do."
Copyright Advertising/Communications Times Jan/Feb 2002