Depp's legal team is responding to Heard's claim that the wrong juror served on their six-week defamation trial.
Johnny Depp is asking the court to toss out his ex-wife, Amber Heard's, motion to set aside the jury verdict from his highly publicized defamation lawsuit against her.
In court docs, obtained by ET, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor's legal team is responding to documents filed by Heard's representatives in Fairfax County, Virginia, last week. Her team claimed the wrong person served on the jury that unanimously decided Depp was defamed by Heard.
The six-week legal saga decided that Heard "acted with actual malice." Depp was awarded over $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, while Heard won $2 million in her countersuit against Depp.
Heard's team claimed that an unidentified 77-year-old living at an address in Virginia was summoned to jury duty. However, an unidentified 52-year-old living at that exact same address with the exact same last name allegedly showed up for jury duty instead and was picked for the trial. Based on this information, the actress' team believes the judge should declare a mistrial and order a new trial.
Now, Depp's team is fighting back against Heard's attempt to toss out the ruling. Through counter-documents, Depp is claiming the valid jury of peers "rendered a verdict against her in virtually all respects and has identified no legitimate basis to set aside in any respect the jury’s decision."
The docs continue to urge that the "Court reject Ms. Heard’s baseless contention that the damages award was excessive and unsupported by the evidence and the damages awarded by the jury were supported by the evidence and law."
Referencing the 2018 Washington Post article that Heard wrote, which alleged abuse against her from an unnamed partner, Depp's team says, "The jury’s finding of defamation regarding the OP-ED headline was consistent with and supported by the law and facts."
Concluding the counter to Heard's argument, Depp's lawyers pointedly state, "Mr. Depp respectfully requests that this court deny Ms. Heard’s frivolous motion in its entirety and reject her outlandish requests to set aside the jury verdict."
In an interview with legal expert Julie Rendelman, ET asked about the impact a possible mistrial would have on this case, which had such overwhelming media and public attention. She said, "There is no question that if there was a mistrial in this case we'd be looking at a huge uproar, specifically on social media for those that have followed this case all along... who would be quite upset if anything should change in terms of this trial."
Rendelman went on to discuss what Heard's claim that the wrong juror sat for the trial meant and identified the crux of this continued legal battle, saying, "The question really is: does that violate Amber Heard's due process?"
In Rendelman's legal opinion, "Amber Heard's team in their motion is throwing up everything on the wall and hoping there is something that will stick." But will it work? Rendelman states, "I think it's quite a leap to expect that at the end of the day she will walk away with the mistrial based on this."
Adding to Heard's legal docket, the Aquaman actress is also entangled in a lawsuit from the insurance company New York Marine and General Insurance Co. The company is arguing that it is not obligated to help pay for her defense against Depp.
In court documents filed on July 8 and obtained by ET, the insurance company is claiming that because Heard is also getting coverage from another insurance company, it is not obligated to pay for her defense.
RELATED CONTENT:
