A multi-million dollar legal rumble between Gawker Media and former professional wrestling star Hulk Hogan — real name Terry Bollea — has likely been delayed through the summer after a superior court granted the media company a last-minute stay.
The Sixth Judicial Court of Florida announced Monday that representatives for Hogan and Gawker Media will meet on Oct. 20 to determine the next steps in a legal battle that has been raging now for several years.
The hearing comes after an eleventh-hour reprieve granted late last week by a Florida appellate court, which ruled that a lower court overlooked rules governing the scheduling of trials. The contest, which would have kicked off today, will now likely wait until months after the proposed October court date.
The case, a $100 million invasion-of-privacy lawsuit between Gawker Media and Hulk Hogan, stems from the media company’s decision to publish an edited sex tape showing the former wrestler having sex with Heather Clem, the ex-wife of shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. At the crux of the trial is the disputed news value of the tape:Â Gawker Media alleges its publication of the tape is protected by the First Amendment given its perceived newsworthiness; Hogan’s legal team argues that the tape unjustly pries into his personal life.
The high-stakes nature of the trial could figure into the financial health of Gawker Media, which does not have enough money in its coffers to cover the entirety of a potential $100 million settlement. Speaking to Capital New York, Gawker Media founder Nick Denton said the company does not keep that kind of money in reserve in case of litigation.
The appellate court’s decision to postpone the contest was likely welcome news for Gawker Media, which had been fighting a two-front legal battle as the trial date approached. On one hand, attorneys for Gawker were preparing for a high-profile trial that could have significant bearing on the financial health of the company. On the other, they were battling with the FBI and the Executive Office of United States Attorneys in a separate lawsuit for records that might aid them in their defense against Hogan. Last week, as the trial drew closer, representatives from Gawker Media faced the FBI in court to argue that the remainder of documents requested through the Freedom of Information Act be made available in short order.
The records, which were created by the FBI during an investigation into the attempted sale and distribution of the sex tape, include three DVDs that show Hogan and Heather Clem having sex, according to a court filing from the FBI. During the hearing, attorneys from Gawker Media told a judge that video evidence produced by the FBI appeared to have been incomplete: According to Gawker Media attorney Seth Berlin, one of the videos shows merely “dead air” and one of the videos appears to have the wrong audio track.
At the hearing, a judge ordered the FBI to re-examine the videos to make sure they’re “accurate and complete” by July 10.
It’s still unclear whether the evidence gleaned from Gawker Media’s lawsuit with the FBI will figure into the upcoming trial against Hogan. In an email to Poynter Saturday, Hogan attorney Charles Harder said that he would ask the court for a case management conference before the Oct. 20 date.
