March 12, 2024
Fox Corp. media mogul Rupert Murdoch and other Fox empire figures have urged Delaware’s Court of Chancery to toss as unwinnable a stockholder suit seeking to make them liable for billions in potential damages for defamatory statements alleging 2020 election conspiracies on network and affiliate broadcasts.
The motion to dismiss made public Monday argued that the derivative suit, filed by seven benefit or pension funds and a Fox Corp. stockholder, fails to show — among other shortcomings — an utter failure of oversight and knowing breach of duty required to overcome Delaware charter protections for company directors.
Among the damages sought in the suit, filed in May 2023 and last amended in September, is an award to cover a $787.5 million company settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023 on Dominion claims for $1.6 billion in damages. That suit claimed that Fox personalities relentlessly trumpeted baseless allegations about the exploitation of Dominion voting machine flaws in a bid to tip the 2020 election, jeopardizing the Dominion business and brand.
. . .
Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster in December named the New York City Employees Retirement System and four other New York pension funds, the state of Oregon and the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund as lead plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs are represented by Joel Friedlander, Jeffrey M. Gorris and Christopher M. Foulds of Friedlander & Gorris PA, Ellen Rosenblum and Brian A. de Haan of the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, Julie Goldsmith Reiser, Molly J. Bowen and Brendan Schneiderman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Katherine Lubin Benson of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.