The judge overseeing the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni lawsuit has decided that the actress’ claims for emotional distress are dead. The ruling comes after a tense back in forth between the dueling sides, with Baldoni’s lawyers filing a motion to compel her to turn over her medical records and Lively fighting that move.
Judge Lewis Liman wrote this morning that Baldoni’s motion to compel is denied “based on Plaintiff’s representation that the relevant claims will be withdrawn. Lively’s request that ‘because the parties have agreed to dismiss Ms. Lively’s tenth and eleventh causes of action . . . the Court exercise its inherent authority and authority under Rule 15 to dismiss them without prejudice’ is denied without prejudice to renewal. The parties shall stipulate to whether the dismissal is with or without prejudice, or Lively shall renew her request by formal motion. For avoidance of doubt, if the claims are not dismissed, the Court will preclude Lively from offering any evidence of emotional distress.”In short, Judge Liman shut down the possibility of Lively changing her mind and turning over her medical records.
Lively can choose to try to reach an agreement with Baldoni about dismissing the claims with prejudice — meaning without the right to refile — or she can roll the dice and ask the judge to dismiss the claims without an agreement in a bid to have the court dismiss them without prejudice. Either way, Lively’s attorneys can no longer present evidence of her alleged emotional distress claims.
Baldoni’s attorneys declined to comment on the ruling. Lively’s lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb called their motion to compel “utterly pointless.”
“The court denied Wayfarer’s motion,” they added in a statement. “He told the parties to continue their discussions about the technicalities of how two of the 15 claims will be voluntarily dismissed. Ms. Lively has offered to dismiss those claims because they are no longer necessary, and she will continue to pursue emotional distress damages through other claims in her lawsuit, including sexual harassment and retaliation.”
On Monday, Baldoni’s lawyers filed said motion seeking to compel the actress to sign a HIPAA release for access to therapy notes and other relevant information and referenced her desire to drop the claims rather than acquiesce. In cases involving physical or emotional injury claims, it is standard procedure for the defense to access the plaintiff’s medical records as a way to identify the root and scope of alleged distress.
“Instead of complying with the Medical RFPs, Ms. Lively’s counsel recently advised us, in writing, that Ms. Lively is withdrawing her [infliction of emotional distress] Claims,” the filing stated. “However, Ms. Lively has refused the Wayfarer Parties’ reasonable request that the withdrawal of such claims be with prejudice. She is only willing to withdraw her claims without prejudice. In other words, Ms. Lively wants to simultaneously: (a) refuse to disclose the information and documents needed to disprove that she suffered any emotional distress and/or that the Wayfarer Parties were the cause; and (b) maintain the right to re-file her IED Claims at an unknown time in this or some other court after the discovery window has closed.”
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Lively’s lawyers called the filing “a press stunt” and filed their own response that urged the court to sanction Baldoni’s attorneys for the abusing the docket and requested that the motion to compel Lively be denied and struck. “It is based on two brazenly false assertions. First, they claim that Ms. Lively has “refused” to disclose medical and mental health information, but as counsel for the Wayfarer Parties concede, that information is relevant only to Ms. Lively’s stand-alone tort-based emotional distress claims that she indicated she was withdrawing,” the Lively filing noted. “To suggest that Ms. Lively has ‘refused’ to produce anything (in either her written discovery responses, in the parties’ conference, or anytime thereafter) in connection with these claims is intentionally misleading to the Court and their intended audience for this false record: the public. Second, they claim that Ms. Lively has ‘refused’ to properly stipulate to dismissal. But, that would suggest there was any discussion or mutually known dispute as to the stipulation. As noted, there was none.”
The action is playing out in in U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, where Lively sued Baldoni, claiming that she was sexual harassed on the set of “It Ends With Us” and faced a retaliatory smear campaign. Baldoni, who directed and co-starred in the hit Sony film about domestic violence, is suing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million, claiming that the actress tried to extort him and subsequently defamed him via a New York Times article. In total, there are six active lawsuits moving through various courts related to what happened on the set and in the run-up to the 2024 release of “It Ends With Us.”
From Variety US