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Jesse Ventura's jury award in dispute over barroom brawl tossed

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Jesse Ventura's jury award in dispute over barroom brawl tossed

A federal appeals court has set aside a $1.35 million award for unjust enrichment to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in connection with an anecdote in a former U.S. Navy Seal's book that said he had lost a bar brawl with the Seal, and ordered a new trial on $500,000 awarded on a defamation claim.

Chris Kyle, who has since died, had written a 2012 book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” in which he said that in 2006 he had a bar fight with Mr. Ventura, whom he identified only as “Scruff Face” in his book, according to Tuesday's ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis in Jesse Ventura v. Tara Kyle, as executor of the Estate of Chris Kyle.

Although Mr. Ventura, a former wrestler and Minnesota governor, was not identified by name in the book, Mr. Kyle, who was killed in 2013, identified him as “Scruff Face” in interviews, according to the ruling.

Mr. Ventura sued Mr. Kyle on charges including defamation and unjust enrichment on the grounds he had fabricated the fight. In 2014 a jury in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis awarded Mr. Ventura $1.85 million, and Mr. Kyle's estate then appealed.

In ordering a new trial on the defamation claim, the federal appeals court said Mr. Ventura's attorney had inappropriately suggested in examining witnesses who worked for Mr. Kyle's publisher and in his final comments to the jury, that insurance would pay for Mr. Ventura's claim, when evidence on any such policy had never been introduced.

“Given Ventura's repeated efforts to introduce evidence of … insurance at trial, it is difficult to see how Ventura's counsel's comments were anything other than 'deliberate strategic choice' to try to influence and enhance damages by referencing an impersonal deep-pocket insurer,” said the ruling, in quoting an earlier ruling, and remanding the defamation charge for a new trial.

On the unjust enrichment claim, the three-judge appeals court panel said, “We agree Kyle was not unjustly enriched as matter of Minnesota law.”

A minority opinion by Judge Lavenski R. Smith said while he agrees with reversal of the unjust enrichment claim, he disagrees with remanding the defamation claim, stating Mr. Kyle's attorney had not made a timely motion for a mistrial.

Mr. Kyle was killed by a former Marine at a shooting range in Texas in 2013. He was the focus of the 2014 movie “American Sniper.”