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Johnny Depp allowed to proceed USD 50 million defamation case against Amber Heard despite libel case verdict
Amber Heard's motion to dismiss the defamation case filed by Johnny Depp against her in Virginia gets denied.
Johnny Depp scored a major victory against ex-wife Amber Heard as her plea to dismiss his USD 50 million defamation suit against her following the UK libel case verdict was denied. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate rejected Heard's motion to dismiss the case which will now proceed to a trial next year.
For the uninitiated, in the UK court case, Depp sued a tabloid over an article that had called him a “wife beater.” After a trial that lasted weeks, Judge Andrew Nicol stated that after finding "substantial truth" to the article in The Sun, specifically with regards to 14 incidents that happened during the troubled marriage, Depp lost to the tabloid.
The libel case loss was being considered by Amber Heard's team a major win for her, following which she filed a motion to ask the Virginia court to dismiss Depp's defamation case against her.
As reported by Deadline, Depp's lawyers commented on the recent development and said, "Mr. Depp is most gratified by the Court’s decision."
This comes as a second victory for Depp after the actor was recently granted permission by a New York judge to conduct a determination if Heard donated a portion of their USD 7 million divorce settlement to the ACLU, as she proclaimed by her. The actor recently sued ACLU, back in May to force the nonprofit to reveal whether Heard made the donations as promised by her.
As for their upcoming Virginia defamation suit which has already faced multiple delays amid the pandemic, the case is now slated for a hearing in April 2022.
