Court throws out $1.8m judgment against 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle's estate

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An appeals court on Monday threw out a $1.8 million judgment against the estate of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle that had been awarded in a lawsuit alleging Kyle had defamed former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in his bestselling book "American Sniper."

Ventura, a fellow Navy veteran, said that Kyle defamed him in his 2012 book and subsequent interviews by saying the two got into a bar fight in 2006 after Ventura said the SEALs deserved to "lose a few" for their involvement in the Iraq War at a gathering following a SEAL's funeral. Ventura denied the incident occurred.

A Minnesota jury decided in 2014 that Ventura deserved $500,000 in damages and about $1.345 million in "unjust enrichment," which is typically awarded in cases in which the court finds someone unfairly or by chance made money at the expense of another, requiring restitution.

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But in a 26-page ruling, the 8th District of the U.S. Court of Appeals overruled the lower district court. At least seven witnesses testifying on behalf of Kyle's estate said they heard some of the inflammatory remarks attributed to Ventura, and "offered generally similar accounts of what Ventura said," according to the ruling. All of those witnesses were current or former Navy SEALs, or friends or family of SEALs. Three people testified on Ventura's behalf and said they saw no altercation, while acknowledging they were not with him the whole evening.

The court vacated the judgment in part by citing a line of questioning and statements made by Ventura's counsel about the insurance policy covering Kyle's book, published by HarperCollins. In particular, statements that any money awarded to Ventura would be paid by the insurance policy, rather than Kyle's family, were "improper and prejudicial," according to the new ruling.

The appeals court also found that the district court erred by allowing Ventura's legal team to ask HarperCollins employees under oath if they were aware that the publisher had paid for an insurance policy that would pay for libel and defamation claims against the Kyle estate. The questions assumed facts that had never been admitted in evidence and made it appear that Kyle's editor, Peter Hubbard, and publicist, Sharyn Rosenblum, were biased in Kyle's favor, the higher court found.

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