Court Upholds Defamation Verdict and Default Judgment

In a case involving a dispute among members of the Obowu Union DFW, the plaintiff sued the other members for defamation after he was suspended.  The Union filed a plea in intervention but the plaintiff never filed an answer and the Union moved for default judgment, which the trial court granted.  The case went to trial and a jury returned a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor on his defamation claim for over $200,000.

The defendants appealed the defamation verdict, which the Court of Appeals affirmed, and the plaintiff also appealed the default judgment.  The Court affirmed the default judgment, rejecting the plaintiff’s argument that the trial court should have granted him a new trial because the intervenors failed to serve a copy of the motion for default judgment on him.  Specifically, the Court noted that “after a defendant has been served with citation and the petition, the plaintiff has no legal duty to notify the defendant before taking a default judgment . . . .”

Iroh v. Igwe