Former beauty queen ordered to pay $5 million

[Hum]

This beauty queen has to deal with an ugly reality: The pageant contestant Sheena Monnin has been ordered by a judge to pay Donald Trump and his Miss USA pageant $5 million in a defamation lawsuit after she claimed the contest was fixed.

After the 2012 Miss USA pageant the former Miss Pennsylvania accused the contest of being rigged. She claimed on Facebook and the ?Today? show that another contestant saw a written list of five finalists backstage before winners were officially announced onstage, according to the New York Law Journal.

Monnin quit the contest and wrote on her Facebook page that the pageant was ?fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent and in many ways trashy.?

Trump fired back, calling her accusations ?false and reckless,?the New York Post reported. ?She was angry that she lost,? he added.

Trump sued over the ?false charge,? and the case went to an arbitrator, who ruled that Monnin had defamed the pageant, ordering her to pay $5 million. The beauty queen sought to have the judgment overturned. The judge ruled against her.

?Sheena?s problem in this case is that she never produced the smoking gun," Dana Cole, a legal analyst, told ABC News. ?And therefore, her case was doomed.?

source

[Shiranui]

Monnin penalized for moanin'?

[+Red King Subscriber²]

So, wait, if I accuse someone of being a d*ck. I can get sued for it?

[XerXis]

So, wait, if I accuse someone of being a d*ck. I can get sued for it?

yes, it's called libel, there are however a multitude of ways to say someone is a dick that makes a case against you for libel very hard to maintain. She didn't use one of those ways, it was after all a beauty contest, not a IQ test

[Nick H. Supervisor]

So, wait, if I accuse someone of being a d*ck. I can get sued for it?

Possibly I guess, but a more likely scenario is that the guy trying to sue you will be laughed at by the court before being told to man up.

[Kami-]

yes, it's called libel, there are however a multitude of ways to say someone is a dick that makes a case against you for libel very hard to maintain. She didn't use one of those ways, it was after all a beauty contest, not a IQ test

 

Actually if it's verbal it's slander it's only libel if it's written/printed. Both can be counted as defamation.

[FloatingFatMan]

Beauty contests?  Those things are about as honestly run as Reality TV talent shows.

[Pow]

5 million? Seriously? 5 million dollars.

[123456789A]

Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc. should sue all the people spreading FUD for $5 million.

[compl3x]

So, wait, if I accuse someone of being a d*ck. I can get sued for it?

 

 

Doubtful. Saying you don't like someone isn't grounds for being sued.

 

This woman "defamed" the contest by claiming it was rigged. The ruling was absurd.

[ahhell]

So, wait, if I accuse someone of being a d*ck. I can get sued for it?

 

When that person is the Trump...yes.

[Som]

Monnin penalized for moanin'?

 

Bob: I'd say that Les Whinen ought to do more thinking and less whining!

Lisa: There's no councilman Les Whinen.