From Judge David Leibowitz (S.D. Fla.) in Mosler v. Wagner; plaintiff Warren Mosler is a hedge fund executive, author on economics, luxury sports car developer, and former unsuccessful political candidate; defendant James Todd Wagner was a former Director of Engineering at Mosler's car company, and had tried to buy the company:
Mosler brings this action against Wagner for defamation per se and unauthorized publication of name or likeness. The facts at summary judgment are as follows:
Prior to the instant case, Wagner filed a twenty-count complaint against Mosler in the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, in and for Palm Beach County, Florida (the "State Court Proceeding"). After the jury returned a verdict for Wagner, the Honorable Luis Delgado set aside the jury's verdict and entered final judgment in Mosler's favor.
During that time, around September 2024, Wagner registered the website domains, titled "JudgeX.org," "warrenmosler.co.," and "ModernMonetaryTheory-Scam.org," all of which form the basis of the current action. Through these publicly available websites, Wagner published various statements claiming that Mosler bribed Judge Delgado when he overturned the jury's verdict. The websites also represent Mosler's name and likeness without Mosler's consent. In addition to the websites, Wagner continued to disparage Mosler through a YouTube channel he created, called "JudgeXO," once again accusing Mosler of bribing Judge Delgado in the State Court Proceeding.
Wagner's basis for this allegation? A statistical analysis (the "Statistical Analysis") based on mathematical probabilities. This analysis concluded that it was 99.999999999% probable that Judge Delgado accepted a bribe from Mosler. It further informed that it would have taken "an honest judge" nearly thirty-seven billion years to make such a remarkable ruling overturning the jury's verdict in the State Court Proceeding.
The Statistical Analysis, however, admits of the possibility that Judge Delgado was not bribed. Wagner, too, admits that possibility. Wagner does not know what Judge Delgado received as part of this alleged bribe nor who made this bribe. In fact, Wagner nor his counsel in the State Court Proceeding ever argue that bribery was the cause of Judge Delgado setting aside the jury verdict. At Wagner's counsel's deposition, counsel admitted that there was no evidence to support that Judge Delgado was bribed.
The court granted plaintiff summary judgment as to defamation:
