Trump sued Maher this week. The complaint arises out of Maher demanding that Trump prove his mother isn’t an orangutan. This of course, to sensible people, is a mockery or parody of Trump’s “birther” argument. It’s a silly battle between comedians, whether or not Trump is willing to admit he’s a clown.
Ridiculousness of the premise aside, there are several issues which seem to suggest Trump’s attorney may not be zealously advocating his clients’ lunatic position.
First, this case is in California state court. While diversity of citizenship Federal jurisdiction is generally to protect defendants from long-arm statutes of Plaintiff’s home state, it also protects foreign plaintiffs from unfavorable jury pools. The decision of which court to file in must be made with your client’s input and interests in mind. Bad call for picking one of the most liberal jurisdictions in which to prosecute one of the most irrationally conservative people’s claims against a liberal political comedian. Really bad call.
Second, the claim is meritless. Trump could have tried a claim for defamation, but he most certainly is a “real” public figure and Times v. Sullivan would destroy his claim.
However, Trump’s lawyer didn’t even pursue said claim, which would at least have some questions of fact as to Trump’s public figure status – the claim is breach of contract.
Essentially, Trump’s lawyer alleges that Maher’s comment on television was an offer, that Trump accepted, Trump proved he wasn’t the son of a monkey and thus performed, and now Maher is in present material breach of contract for not paying five million dollars to charity. While an offer in jest can still be accepted, and create a valid contract, every state in the union says a joking, outlandish, advertisement in jest is not an offer to do business.
Under no set of facts in the complaint that Balber filed can Trump recover. This means, in as little as sixty days, Maher will win a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.
Once Trump’s complaint is dismissed, Maher should sue Trump for abuse of civil process and seek sanctions and fines against Balber for turning the civil justice system into a prime-time comedy show.