Mariah Carey has defeated a long-running lawsuit that alleged she defamed her brother.
In a 19 October court order, a judge ruled that Morgan Carey had not met the requirements to sue his superstar sister over passages in her bestselling 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, Billboard reports.
The part of the book he cited suggested Morgan had sold cocaine and done prison time.
New York law requires a defamation lawsuit against a public figure to feature “actual malice”, meaning they lied with the intent to cause harm.
“The Court finds that Plaintiff has not sufficiently pleaded actual malice on the part of Defendant,” wrote Judge Leslie A Stroth.
“Plaintiff has alleged that Defendant was more concerned with the ‘commercial viability’ of her memoir than verifying the truth of her statements. Notably, Plaintiff fails to provide any proof that Defendant made such statements with knowledge of their falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth.”
Judge Stroth ruled the lawsuit cannot move forward without meeting the actual malice standard, and dismissed it completely.
The All I Want for Christmas singer’s lawyer told Billboard, “Ms Carey is gratified that the Court recognised that her memoir addresses significant issues of public interest and dismissed her brother’s defamation claims in their entirety.”
Morgan first sued Mariah back in 2021, a few months after The Meaning of Mariah Carey hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and the case has been lingering in litigation ever since.
Morgan’s attorney announced that he plans to appeal the dismissal.
“We respectfully disagree with today’s decision as being inconsistent with prior rulings in the case,” he told Billboard.
