Foley Hoag secured a significant appellate victory for Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony Pictures Television, and the makers of the docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV when the California Court of Appeal reversed a lower court ruling and ordered dismissal of a defamation lawsuit brought by former Nickelodeon television producer Dan Schneider.
Schneider alleged that the documentary falsely implied he was a sexual predator. In a unanimous decision, the appellate court held that the series clearly distinguished allegations concerning Schneider’s workplace misconduct from the child sexual abuse committed by other individuals discussed in the documentary who worked on his shows. The court further noted that the documentary expressly informed viewers that an investigation into Schneider’s conduct found no evidence of child sexual abuse.
Schneider initially filed the suit in May 2024, and the defendants promptly filed an anti-SLAPP motion, arguing that the complaint failed to identify any defamatory statement on its face or allege facts demonstrating that the isolated scenes from the documentary challenged by Schneider reasonably supported the purported defamatory implication or were published with actual malice. The trial court denied the motion. The Foley Hoag team moved quickly to appeal, arguing that allowing the claim to proceed would violate the First Amendment, encourage retaliatory litigation against protected speech, and chill investigative reporting on matters of public concern.
The appellate court reversed the lower court’s ruling, holding that the docuseries, considered in its full context, failed to give rise to a defamatory implication and ordering dismissal of the action.
The Foley Hoag team representing Warner Bros. Discovery and the filmmakers included Michael Grygiel, Kelly McNamee, and Christina Hernsdorf, working alongside co-counsel from Gibson Dunn and Greenberg Traurig. The team was recognized as a Litigation Daily Litigator of the Week Runner-Up for the victory.