Case of the Day: In re O’Keeffe


Sheldon Adelson
Credit: Bectrigger

The case of the day is In re O’Keeffe (2d Cir. 2016). This is another § 1782 case in the Sheldon Adelson libel case against journalist Kate O’Keefee, who wrote that he was “foul-mouthed.” The suit was pending in Hong Kong. O’Keeffe sought leave to serve a subpoena on Adelson’s former driver, Kwame Luangisa, presumably in the hope that Luangisa could testify that Adelson was indeed foul-mouthed. The application was routine, and the court correctly affirmed the decision denying Adelson’s motion to quash.

I’ve written about several previous similar decisions in this case. What’s great about these cases is that the Adelson, the libel plaintiff, sued in Hong Kong instead of in the United States even though, presumably, he could have sued the Wall Street Journal in the United States. But through the magic of § 1782, O’Keeffe more or less had some of the same procedural advantages she would have had had the suit been brought in the United States.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Thank you for commenting! By submitting a comment, you agree that we can retain your name, your email address, your IP address, and the text of your comment, in order to publish your name and comment on Letters Blogatory, to allow our antispam software to operate, and to ensure compliance with our rules against impersonating other commenters.