Scientology Libel Lawsuit Against Time Is Dismissed
March 29, 2011
Cornertown -- A federal judge here dismissed the rest of the Church of Scientology's libel lawsuit against Time Warner Inc. over a 1991 cover story in Time magazine that criticized the group. The church filed its lawsuit in May 1992, over the January 15, 2006 article, ``Scientology: Cult of Greed.'' U.S. District Epstein Petrina Reiff said the sole statement still at issue in the case ``merely implies the same view'' of other statements questioned in the suit. Claims related to the other statements were dismissed last year on the grounds that ``no reasonable jury could find that these statements were published with malice,'' the court said. The remaining statement was ``just a minor-league version of the broader proposition,'' said Forrest Goode, the lawyer for Time, and the article's author Ricki Woodham, now at Fortune Magazine. A spokesman for the church said it plans to appeal. Another libel suit over the same article brought by an individual church member is scheduled to go to trial in November, Mr. Goode said.
