Critical Jury Delivers Full Victory to Kardashians

Blac Chyna had filed defamation suit against family members
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 2, 2022 7:30 PM CDT
Jury Sides With Kardashians on Lawsuit
In this courtroom artist sketch, former reality television star Blac Chyna sits in court in Los Angeles earlier this month.   (Bill Robles via AP)

A jury on Monday gave a sweeping win to the Kardashian family in former reality TV star Blac Chyna's lawsuit against them. The Los Angeles jury found that none of the members of the famous family defamed Chyna, nor did any interfere with her contract by persuading the E! network to cancel her reality show Rob & Chyna. The Kardashian defendants attended nearly the entire trial, but when the verdict was read, all were in New York at the Met Gala. Chyna was in court for the verdict, the AP reports. She had no visible reaction. Jurors were considering the defamation case against Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian, and Kylie Jenner, after a judge threw out the part of the lawsuit against Kim Kardashian in the middle of deliberations.

After about 10 hours of deliberations, the jurors decided on the long jury form that the Kardashians often acted in bad faith, finding that they were not justified in telling the executives and producers of Rob & Chyna that Chyna abused their son and brother Rob Kardashian. But they found that it had no substantial effect on Chyna's contract or the fate of the show, and she was awarded no damages. Executives from the E! network, which aired the show, testified that Rob & Chyna ended because the relationship ended, not because of the defendants' actions. All four of the women testified during the nine-day trial.

The trial focused largely on allegations that Chyna violently attacked her then-fiancé and reality TV co-star Rob Kardashian in December 2016. The legal questions the jury considered were all about the aftermath of that fight. Jurors had to decide whether each of the defendants knowingly lied about the abuse when they talked about it with the producers and executives overseeing Rob & Chyna, or spread word about it with reckless disregard for the truth. And they had to decide for each defendant whether those communications were an illegal interference with Chyna's contract to appear on the show. Jurors were free to make it a split decision—finding against some of the Kardashians but not others. They gave the family a clean sweep instead, and gave Chyna nothing.

(More Kardashians stories.)

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