Righthaven defendant frustrated again in debt collection attempt
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6 January 2012
2 a.m.
Attorneys trying to recover money from copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas were frustrated yet again Thursday when no one from Righthaven showed up for a court proceeding in one of the cases involving the company.
The proceeding was a judgment debtor's examination in which Righthaven CEO Steven Gibson and his wife, Raisha "Drizzle" Gibson, were scheduled to be questioned about the location and extent of the company's assets. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston set the examination in mid-December.
But a court clerk said Thursday that Righthaven attorney Shawn Mangano, when contacted by the court after the examination was scheduled to begin, said he thought the proceeding was to be held Friday.
The session was scheduled to benefit Righthaven lawsuit defendant Wayne Hoehn, who is trying to recover $63,720 in legal fees after winning dismissal of a Righthaven lawsuit against him.
Hoehn’s attorneys said they were skeptical of Mangano’s explanation, saying they had sent Mangano multiple reminders of the event.
"The public should be disappointed" in Righthaven’s conduct, said one of Hoehn’s attorneys, J. Malcolm DeVoy IV, of Randazza Legal Group.
"You’d think members of the bar — who are officers of the court — would give the orders of the court greater weight."
Righthaven is the copyright infringement lawsuit company that filed 275 no-warning lawsuits alleging unauthorized use of material from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post in 2010 and 2011.
Righthaven lately has been struggling through hard times after multiple judges rejected its standing to file the lawsuits because — under flawed copyright assignments — the newspapers maintained control of the content Righthaven claimed to own.
And in four of the cases, defendants were found to be protected by the fair use doctrine of copyright law in their online sharing of material without authorization from the Review-Journal.
After its courtroom defeats, judges ordered Righthaven to pay $216,355 in fees to prevailing defendants, like Hoehn.
But Hoehn’s attorneys have repeatedly been frustrated in their debt collection attempts.
When Righthaven couldn’t — or wouldn’t — pay Hoehn his judgment, the Randazza attorneys obtained writs allowing U.S. Marshals to seize Righthaven assets, but they found less then $1,000 in a bank account.
The Randazza attorneys did succeed in gaining appointment of a receiver to auction Righthaven’s assets including its copyrights, but so far she’s seized only Righthaven’s website domain name and is auctioning it.
Hoehn’s attorneys have filed motions for contempt against Righthaven after the company failed to turn over financial information prior to Thursday’s scheduled exam. They’re also seeking an order requiring marshals to bring Gibson to court to sign over the copyrights.
They made a bit of progress during Thursday’s scheduled courtroom appearance when Johnston, through a court clerk, ordered that Righthaven turn over the financial information sought by Hoehn.
"I will get my client to produce what they have," Mangano told the court clerk by telephone.
The debtor’s examination, in the meantime, was rescheduled for Monday.
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Discussion 11 comments
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wtf? how in the world did the judge not send someone out to pick these two up and let them simmer until he's ready for them? this is easily the most remarkable train wreck I've ever watch unfold.
and why isn't the other half of the LLC being called, what with this level of cooperation from Gibson?
wow.
"...Righthaven attorney Shawn Mangano, when contacted by the court after the examination was scheduled to begin, said he thought the proceeding was to be held Friday....."You'd think members of the bar -- who are officers of the court -- would give the orders of the court greater weight."
It will be interesting to watch how this backfires on Righthaven and Mangano.
Normally I would class this among Stupid Lawyer Tricks, but experience shows the only thing you can count on is attorneys pushing paper at you and judges signing them. Bench and bar can more often than not be counted on to completely ignore truth and the rule of law, mainly because they can. A judge signs something to turn your life inside out, in complete defiance of the law and the court's own rules, and there's little you can do but appeal to a higher court. And hope you eventually get your stuff and life back.
"how in the world did the judge not send someone out to pick these two up and let them simmer until he's ready for them?"
vegas_tom -- this isn't a criminal case. Courts don't issue warrants in civil cases unless it's advanced contempt.
"Nobody necessarily wants to roll the dice [in a courtroom]." -- Neil Opfer, a construction management professor at UNLV who has served as a consultant or expert witness in more than 2,000 construction-related lawsuits.
Being a day late or not showing up at all is the norm with Righthaven not the exception. They always have the same lame excuses. Just like they abused copyright law they are now abusing the deference that Judges tend to give lawyers.
If they do not show up again someone may want to check to make sure Steve and "Drizzle" Gibson have not skipped town or the country.
They've been shaking down unsuspecting victims for a couple of years, now that the shoe is on the other foot, these unsavory types refuse to pony up. Court orders are court orders. One would think they would keep a date book or have it in their phone, so they don't forget. The times I've had to go to court (jury duty), I never "thought it was friday". Time for the court to repo their cars and auction them off to pay their debts. If that isn't enough, back a moving van up to their house!
I admire Wayne Hoehn's efforts to keep up the pressure on Righthaven. This is the kind of legal nightmare most of us would not have the stomach or money to pursue. If only there were more people like Hoehn to stand up to the all the other Righthavens out there.
The reason they did not show up is because they are GONE!!!!
They cleared out all the $$$ except for what appears to be a grand in assets, left a worthless (couple hundred at best at auction) website, and left everyone with the same violated feeling that they had when these false lawsuits were initially filed. And the lawyer said......thought if was Friday....REALLY...and he is not suspended from the State Bar WHY?? .....
If you or I fail to appear, we get a bench warrant issued and someone comes to our house or place of business, lawyers blow it off and have no ramifications what-so-ever. I guarantee that if it were reversed and Righthaven were to appear to get $$$, would have been a dog and pony show.
So the double standard has raised it's ugly head again. If a business gets a judgement against a private party, our feet are held over a fire to make good, but if a private party wins against a business (and especially a law firm), stall tactics, regardless of how blatant, are casually brushed off without so much as a censure or administrative investigation.
What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean...... A Good Start....
"I admire Wayne Hoehn's efforts to keep up the pressure on Righthaven. This is the kind of legal nightmare most of us would not have the stomach or money to pursue."
UTE -- especially since Hoehn "is trying to recover $63,720 in legal fees after winning dismissal of a Righthaven lawsuit against him." This means he had that kind of $$ to pay his attorneys for justice and is now looking to get reimbursed. Considering the case never went to trial, and those are the fees just for procedural wrangling, it confirms when you run out of money you run out of rights. Justice has become a game for the rich -- ordinary folk just line up to get screwed. Again.
"The legal system has also been wounded by lawyers who themselves no longer respect the rule of law ..... When lawyers cannot be trusted to observe the fair processes essential to maintaining the rule of law, how can we expect the public to respect the process?" -- the Honorable Edith Jones to Harvard's Federalist Club "American Legal System Is Corrupt Beyond Recognition, Judge Tells Harvard Law School" 2/28/03
I'd start looking at Mangano's finances at this point.
It is very difficult to think that Mangano is so incredibly incompetent as to make a mistake like this. My thought is that he received some form of "inducement", either from Gibson or the Stephens family half of Righthaven, to make this statement and an earlier one implying that Righthaven doesn't actually own the copyrights in question.
I would think that such statements have placed his license in serious risk. I would even speculate that should there be any finding of criminal action (i.e. fraud) on the part of Righthaven that Mangano could be seen as an active participant as well, based on them.
On the other hand, maybe this is just another example of two of my favorite sayings: "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." and "Don't ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
What I don't understand in this entire fiasco is what was the need for Righthaven in the first place? Why didn't the RJ or the Denver Post use their in-house attorneys to go after the 'infringers' in the first place?? Or just hire an outside attorney to do the dirty work?
Paul, I suspect that the concept behind Righthaven was to allow accounting entries that showed a revenue stream with little expenses, making the income statement look better. It also placed all of the risk (in theory) with Righthaven in the event something like this happened.
The straight forward method would also show the same, or even more revenue, but with substantial expense associated with it, yielding a lower margin rate on paper even though the net might be the same.
Also, by out-sourcing this, clients such as the RJ could avoid hiring extra staff with those associated costs. Given that the RJ has reduced staff numbers by a considerable amount I doubt they wanted to increase manpower.
Most paper's, if they do at all, use a "secretary" to send out a form letter. Look, at the end of the day, Frederick was failing miserably at running the paper; it, like most, was losing money -- Gibson sold him the proverbial bill of good...Frederick, not much of a manager or newsman anyway, bought it. That's all there is to it. In short, Stephens Media took a Don Rey (sp) paper, bought it, and turned into a laughing stock.
Debates are pretty much over. I only wonder now how much D&O insurance is protecting the RJ and Frederick.
The "why's" don't matter...just the plain foolishness, or even stupidity of it will ring for years as Frederick's legacy.