Scripps Defeats Defamation Lawsuit From Former ‘Windy City Rehab’ Co-star
Scripps has defeated a defamation and libel lawsuit from a contractor featured in HGTV home renovation show Windy City Rehab who alleged he was falsely portrayed as the series’ villain and blamed for crimes he didn’t commit.
Sacramento judge Richard Sueyoshi on Tuesday ruled that the depiction by Scripps and producers Big Table Media of Thomas Eckhardt is covered by the First Amendment’s free speech protections, concluding, “Defendant has shown that the entire complaint arises from an act in furtherance of its right of petition or free speech and Plaintiff failed to establish that there is a probability that he will prevail on the claim.”
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Eckhardt, founder of real estate development firm Greymark Development Group and a contractor who appeared in the show, in September sued Scripps over his depiction in the second season of the series.
Eckhardt says the breakup of his business relationship with Alison Gramenos, an executive producer and host of the show, became the main focus of the series, which depicted him as the villain and his partner as an “unknowing, innocent victim.” The duo was plagued by issues around unpaid subcontractors and real estate taxes, improper use of proceeds from construction loans and budgetary discrepancies. He alleges that Scripps, which operates HGTV as a subsidiary of Discovery, improperly aired false statements made by Gramenos pinning the blame solely on him.
Sueyoshi found in a tentative ruling that the complaint met two of the three standards required to allege defamation and libel but failed to prove that Scripps acted with malice, a necessary showing. The order is grounded in a California statute allowing for early dismissal of cases that seek to chill free speech.
During the Tuesday hearing, Eckhardt’s attorney Daniel Hogan looked to keep the case alive. He argued that the show’s producers had prior knowledge to suspect statements made by Gramenos were false and that they should’ve investigated.
“They knew they were relying upon an unreliable source based upon her prior false public statements and based on the fact that she’d been sued multiple times for fraud,” he said. “They knew she harbored animus against plaintiff, and they didn’t investigate.”
Scripps attorney Aaron Moss responded that Scripps would’ve needed to “entertain serious doubts about the truth” and ignore them for claims depending on a showing of malice to survive.
Failure to investigate isn’t enough, he continued, when Eckhardt never spoke up about what he considered lies from Gramenos before the second season of the show aired.
Moss said of Eckhardt: “He knew he had been accused of financial malfeasance and yet, when the teaser trailer aired shortly before season two, he simply said, ‘This isn’t going to be good for anyone’ without saying anything that would suggest that Scripps was being put on notice of some specific untruth they should investigate.”
In his tentative ruling, Sueyoshi emphasized the show’s producers stated in an email that there needs to be a “factual representation of what happened, and not edited in a way that casts someone in a poor light.”
He wrote, “Simply put, even if Plaintiff produced some evidence that Season Two was scripted/fictionalized, and/or that Defendant had input regarding the storylines, this is a far cry from evidence that Defendant created any of Gramenos’ statements and/or had any knowledge they were false or even a reason to doubt they were true.”
The judge ultimately took the matter under submission. He didn’t indicate that anything he heard during the hearing would change his mind on dismissing the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges defamation, trade libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims. Eckhardt claims he’s suffered depression and that his business has slumped because of the show’s false depiction of his business dealings.
HGTV parent Discovery and Windy City Rehab producers Big Table Media were named in the lawsuit. Gramenos was not.