Attorneys trying to recover money from copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas were frustrated yet again Thursday when no one from Righthaven showed up for a court proceeding in one of the cases involving the company.
The proceeding was a judgment debtor's examination in which Righthaven CEO Steven Gibson and his wife, Raisha "Drizzle" Gibson, were scheduled to be questioned about the location and extent of the company's assets. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston set the examination in mid-December.
But a court clerk said Thursday that Righthaven attorney Shawn Mangano, when contacted by the court after the examination was scheduled to begin, said he thought the proceeding was to be held Friday.
The session was scheduled to benefit Righthaven lawsuit defendant Wayne Hoehn, who is trying to recover $63,720 in legal fees after winning dismissal of a Righthaven lawsuit against him.
Hoehn’s attorneys said they were skeptical of Mangano’s explanation, saying they had sent Mangano multiple reminders of the event.
"The public should be disappointed" in Righthaven’s conduct, said one of Hoehn’s attorneys, J. Malcolm DeVoy IV, of Randazza Legal Group.
"You’d think members of the bar — who are officers of the court — would give the orders of the court greater weight."
Righthaven is the copyright infringement lawsuit company that filed 275 no-warning lawsuits alleging unauthorized use of material from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post in 2010 and 2011.
Righthaven lately has been struggling through hard times after multiple judges rejected its standing to file the lawsuits because — under flawed copyright assignments — the newspapers maintained control of the content Righthaven claimed to own.
And in four of the cases, defendants were found to be protected by the fair use doctrine of copyright law in their online sharing of material without authorization from the Review-Journal.
After its courtroom defeats, judges ordered Righthaven to pay $216,355 in fees to prevailing defendants, like Hoehn.
But Hoehn’s attorneys have repeatedly been frustrated in their debt collection attempts.
When Righthaven couldn’t — or wouldn’t — pay Hoehn his judgment, the Randazza attorneys obtained writs allowing U.S. Marshals to seize Righthaven assets, but they found less then $1,000 in a bank account.
The Randazza attorneys did succeed in gaining appointment of a receiver to auction Righthaven’s assets including its copyrights, but so far she’s seized only Righthaven’s website domain name and is auctioning it.
Hoehn’s attorneys have filed motions for contempt against Righthaven after the company failed to turn over financial information prior to Thursday’s scheduled exam. They’re also seeking an order requiring marshals to bring Gibson to court to sign over the copyrights.
They made a bit of progress during Thursday’s scheduled courtroom appearance when Johnston, through a court clerk, ordered that Righthaven turn over the financial information sought by Hoehn.
"I will get my client to produce what they have," Mangano told the court clerk by telephone.
The debtor’s examination, in the meantime, was rescheduled for Monday.