Tuesday, March 27, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.
An amended defamation lawsuit filed by the Las Vegas Sands Corp. against the Las Vegas Sun and Business Editor Jeff Simpson was dismissed Monday by District Judge Michelle Leavitt, who also rejected the initial lawsuit in November.
The Sands, parent company of the Venetian, initially sued after Simpson wrote a column last April about the chances the Sands and three competing companies had in obtaining a Singapore gaming license, which the Sands later won. The Sands objected to Simpson's analysis that the company's "sorry Nevada regulatory record" would not help in its bid to win a Singapore license. That was a reference to Venetian gaming violations for which the company was fined $1 million by the Nevada Gaming Commission in 2004.
After Leavitt dismissed the lawsuit, the Sands amended its complaint, arguing this time that the column represented "defamation by omission" by failing to note the problematic regulatory records of the company's competitors.
In her ruling Monday, Leavitt said such an argument would make it difficult for any story containing negative remarks to ever get published.
"They'd never get a newspaper out," she said. "They'd have to quit writing stories because it would be such an onerous burden."
She cited as a hypothetical that a negative article about herself would not mean that the story would have to cast other judges in the same negative light.
"If they want to write something bad about me and I don't like it and I hear every other judge does it, I get to sue them?" Leavitt quizzed Sands' attorney Martin Singer of Los Angeles.
In other words, she said, is that what the law allows? Singer answered, "I believe it does."
To which she replied: "I think that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard."
Singer argued another hypothetical, in which he said it would be defamation if a story mentioned one candidate's criminal record without also stating the criminal records of competitors.
"If the reporter pointed out the regulatory problems of the other casinos, we wouldn't be here today," he said.
But Leavitt said she saw nothing defamatory in Simpson's column. She said the remarks made by Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Peter Bernhard when the fine was levied against the Sands were far worse than depicted in the Sun column.
"They were very kind," Leavitt said of the newspaper and Simpson. "That they used a 'sorry regulatory record' is minor compared to what the chairman said."
After the hearing, Singer said he would discuss the case with his client before determining whether the Sands would appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.
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