Commentary

 

Attorneys for Mariah Carey ask a judge to throw out  her brother's claims over statements in her memoir

   By David Baker

   Posted June 2, 2021

   Attorneys for Mariah Carey have now filed a response to Morgan Carey’s lawsuit over statements in Mariah Carey’s 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

   The usual response would be what’s called an “answer”, in which the defendant responds to each paragraph in the complaint.

   But in this case, the attorneys instead are asking a judge to toss out the entire case before it even starts. 

   In a 31-page document filed on May 28, Mariah Carey claims that passages in her book about her brother are not statements of fact but rather are opinions, which therefore are not defamatory.

   It’s correct that opinions are protected - but only if they are about facts. You can’t say someone is a ”sometimes drug dealing” person - as Mariah says of Morgan in the book - and then claim it was just her opinion, unless there is evidence that he in fact had been dealing illegal drugs.

  Also, her description of a physical fight between a teenaged Morgan and their father, Alfred Roy Carey, is questionable. In the book she claims that it took “12 police officers” to pull them apart. 

   She was 3 years old. Are we really to believe that in an obviously stressful situation, a terrified 3-year-old counted the number of officers involved?

  But according to the motion, this and other passages are not meant to be taken literally. Rather, they are colorful, hyperbolic writing, intended to paint a picture in the readers’ minds of events she claims occurred.

  Something you might find in, well, a work of fiction. 

  In most lawsuits, a defendant would face detailed examinations, answering, under oath, both written questions, and in person during a deposition. It’s part of what’s called discovery, in which parties to a lawsuit exchange information prior to trial.

   In their response to Morgan’s lawsuit, defendant Carey’s lawyers say one of the reasons his claim should be tossed out is that he failed to provide details of his alleged financial losses caused by the book.

   But this is disingenuous: These lawyers certainly know that there is no requirement for that kind of detail in a complaint. A complaint can be long and detailed, or it can be very brief;  as long as it clearly states the reason that the defendant is being sued it is sufficient.

  The details the defense lawyers are saying are missing would usually be demanded in those written questions in documents called interrogatories, and in demands for bills of particulars - the very process that with last week’s motion defendant Carey is trying to avoid.

   Seven of the eight claims in Morgan Carey’s complaint allege defamation; the eighth is for intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

   That’s the same claim that defendant Carey’s sister Alison Carey alleged in a notice of claim filed in February over statements about her in the book.

  To succeed, the statements in a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress must be outrageous and extreme and intended to hurt the victim.

   That might be hard for Morgan to prove. But Alison’s situation is very different. As defendant Carey was quoted as saying just before her book was published, Alison is “damaged, and  “very broken.” 

  And although she refuses to acknowledge it, she knows why. She knows about the horrific sexual and psychological abuse Alison endured as a child that resulted in a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder, causing terrifying flashbacks of the unspeakable abuse.

   And she knows about the traumatic brain injury from when Alison was hit on the back of the head and left for dead by an intruder at her home in 2015, resulting in surgery four months later to stop a cerebral hemorrhage and leaving her with short-term memory loss and limited vision in one eye. 

  But despite all that, defendant Carey used her description of events she claims occurred 40 years ago to vilify her much less fortunate sister - and then pushed the details out to media organizations just before publication of the book.

   It’s hard to imagine a more callous act. 

   Now in a hospital a month after a life-threatening medical emergency and facing weeks of rehab, Alison is also struggling with the loss of the father of one of her children, who was shot dead by a police officer last week.

    The broader question here is, were Mariah Carey’s attacks on her siblings really necessary? 

   Mariah Carey is one of the luckiest people on the planet. She was barely out of high school when she began a life of enormous wealth and luxury. Yes, her life was hard before she hit it big. But there are thousands of people who are just as talented and work just as hard for far longer, but never make it.

  She should be thankful for her incredible fortune. At the very least, she should have left her siblings out of her book.

   Instead, she portrays herself as a bitter victim, publicly smearing her "broken" sister with damaging, hurtful allegations while denying her an opportunity to defend herself before the stories appeared.

   And that really is outrageous and extreme.

****

Hearing set on motion to dismiss claim

   The return date for Mariah Carey’s motion to dismiss her brother’s complaint is next month.

    In many cases, there is no actual hearing. Instead, the judge decides the request “on the papers” submitted by the parties.

   But in this case, Mariah Carey has requested oral argument. If this is granted, lawyers for both sides will appear at a hearing to make their cases.

  The hearing is set for July 6 in state Supreme Court, New York County.

-- David Baker