Marshall County Coal Co. v. Oliver

The federal district court for the Northern District of West Virginia remanded to state court a defamation action brought against John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, by the coal company Murray Energy Corporation (Murray Energy); Robert E. Murray, the founder, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Murray Energy; and affiliated companies of which Mr. Murray was the president, CEO, and sole director (the affiliated companies). The other defendants included Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO), a Delaware corporation, which broadcasts Last Week Tonight. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants were “persons and organizations fundamentally opposed to any revitalization of the coal industry, having described coal as ‘environmentally catastrophic.’” The plaintiffs further alleged that in a June 2017 episode of Last Week Night the defendants knowingly broadcast malicious statements that they knew to be false based on information provided by the plaintiffs. The statements that the plaintiffs alleged were defamatory included statements indicating that Mr. Murray had no evidence to support his assertion that an earthquake caused a mine collapse that killed nine people; a statement that Mr. Murray and Murray Energy “appear to be on the same side as black lung” and that their position on a coal dust regulation was the equivalent of rooting for bees to kill a child; and a description of Mr. Murray as looking “like a geriatric Dr. Evil.” The plaintiffs also asserted that the allegedly defamatory statements constituted false light invasion of privacy and that defendants intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Mr. Murray. After the defendants removed the action to federal court on diversity jurisdiction grounds, the federal court remanded, rejecting the defendants’ argument that the affiliated companies—which, like HBO, are Delaware corporations—had been fraudulently joined to defeat diversity jurisdiction. The court found that defamatory statements made about an executive of a business could be sufficient to defame the business where the statements were made about the executive in his professional capacity and reflected negatively on the operation of the business. The court therefore found that there existed “a glimmer of hope” that the affiliated companies would establish a cause of action and that diversity jurisdiction therefore was destroyed.