United States Ninth Circuit

In a retired General's suit against sellers of aviation-related memorabilia, alleging various claims, including violations of the federal Lanham Act, California's common law right to privacy and California's statutory right to publicity, district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed where: 1) district court's invocation of the sham affidavit rule to disregard the declaration was not an abuse of discretion, because the district court could reasonably conclude that no juror would believe plaintiff's weak explanation for his sudden ability to remember the answers to important questions about the critical issues of his lawsuit; and 2) plaintiff's claim that defendants "republished" statements about him on their website, thereby restarting the statute of limitations, when they modified unrelated information on their website, is rejected, because under California law a statement on a website is not republished unless the statement itself is substantively altered or added to, or the website is directed to a new audience.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/10/2012
• Published 09/10/2012

Judges

• Tashima

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel