Posted on 03/04/2025 12:35:57 PM PST by CFW
Being accused of "molesting" data to promote climate alarmism is not worth $1 million in punitive damages, a judge ruled Tuesday in a 13-year-old defamation lawsuit that could have bankrupted the nation's most venerable conservative magazine.
The District of Columbia Superior Court slashed the seven-figure punitive damages awarded to University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann, best known for his "hockey-stick" graph on climate change, to $5,000, rejecting Mann's "entire rationale" for preserving the $1 million award: "deterrence and punishment." Just the News covered the trial.
Judge Alfred Irving wrote that Mann "presented no persuasive evidence suggesting that he suffered injury to his business as a result of" Canadian writer and defendant Mark Steyn's 2012 article about him in National Review, a blog post that quoted co-defendant Rand Simberg's blog post for the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
It's the second blow to Mann's litigation in less than two months, with Irving forcing the climate scientist to pay National Review half a million dollars in legal fees for eight years of litigation that ended with summary judgment in NR's favor in 2021.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
Best news of the day!
I bet this frivolous litigation by Mann is the cause of Steyn’s debilitating illness.
He definitely messed with data to get 1998 the hottest year in the 20th century instead of 1934.
Let us recall for the record, Your Honor, that Michael Mann was hiding the decline!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dO3OEGCeTP8&pp=ygUVaGlkZSB0aGUgZGVjbGluZSBtNGd3
Hahah! Tough luck loser! Sanity mostly prevails, but $1 would have been better.
Mann’s law team was provided gratis. The IRS should make sure he has claimed the actual value of the hours gifted by the lawyers as income to be fully taxed.
Is this the guy behind the phony “hockey stick” graph?
Great news for the guest host manning (pardon the pun) the EIB ice station!
$5,000 still is 500 times the maximum punitive damages ratio, as the actual damage (according to the jury) was $1, and the courts have previously put a high ratio of 10 to 1 for damages.
Yes. This is the main American behind the hockey stick graph.
Climate rapist?
I can’t stand this duplations lying hockey stick climate quack who sues at the drop of a hat when he is called a quack. He is finally getting his comeuppance
+1
They guy who is famous for Hockey sticks covered in Fudge.
Excellent news. Mann’s suit was an attempt to intimidate anyone who questioned the gospel of Global Warming.
Mann was able to harass Mark Steyn for 13 years with lawfare.
Mann’s legal costs were likely funded by some climate “NGO” - probably ultimately paid by taxpayers.
What was the remark? Instead of being at Penn State Mann should be in the State Penn.
“Molesting data”?
Another version of “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.”
Yep. Now he should get the puck outta here.
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