One Japanese language magazine is suing another for personal injuries that include defamation, intentional interference with contract and prospective business advantage, due to incidents that stemmed from allegations of rape, sexual harassment and prostitution, as reported by the Courthouse News Service.
The two magazine companies are both based in Hawaii. The plaintiff, Y.K., is the owner/dba of Lighthouse Hawaii Magazine, and the defendant, M.I., is the owner/manager of the Honolulu Times.
The suit states that Lighthouse gains its income from its advertising sales and the two magazines compete for the same advertisers.
The suit claims that "Plaintiff (Y.K.) is the 'face' of Lighthouse Hawaii Magazine, and regularly meets potential customers to solicit their business as advertisers. The health and viability of plaintiff Lighthouse's business is therefore greatly dependent upon plaintiff (Y.K.'s) reputation among the Japanese community in Hawaii and upon the personal relationships he has long worked to foster with customers and potential customers."
According to the suit, the Honolulu Times is a "free monthly Japanese language newspaper."
Y.K. contends that in January of 2012 M.I. started "regularly approaching some ten to twenty of Lighthouse's existing and prospective customers, and without justification and without an honest belief in the truth of the matters asserted, announced that plaintiff (Y.K.) had committed rape, sexual harassment, promoting prostitution rings to executives of well-known Japanese corporations, and other crimes. Furthermore, defendant (M.I.) began harassing Lighthouse customers, explicitly demanding that they terminate their business relationship with plaintiff Lighthouse."
Y.K. stated that M.I. did not stop at damaging his relationships with his exiting clients; M.I. began to publish articles that made similar falsified statements regarding the "personal and professional affairs" of Y.K.
By July 2012 M.I. confronted Y.K. "outside his place of business and began yelling disparaging and libelous statements about plaintiff (Y.K.) and threatened him with physical injury. The following week, defendant (M.I.) appeared at an event where an executive of one of Lighthouse's major corporate customers was present, and he began yelling and accusing the executive of being a customer of plaintiff (Y.K.'s) alleged prostitution ring."
Y.K. has since filed a restraining order against M.I. but it has been largely ignored.
The complaint states, "In contravention and deliberate disobedience to this Court's order, defendant (M.I.) has continued to harass plaintiff (Y.K.) and has persisted in his malicious campaign of defamatory and disparaging attacks upon plaintiff (Y.K.'s) character and continues to interfere with plaintiff Lighthouse's business relations."
The suit, filed by attorney Robert Cohen, seeks punitive damages due to the damages inflicted both on Y.K.'s reputation and that of his magazine.
The suit claims that Y.K.'s customers have "terminated their contracts with plaintiffs as a direct and proximate result of defendants' defamatory and threatening statements, and plaintiffs have accordingly suffered actual damages. Plaintiffs have also lost prospective customers which were reasonably likely to develop and would have purchased advertising space with Lighthouse Hawaii Magazine absent defendants' interference."
A case of personal injury can take many forms. If someone has injured you in an emotional or physical way contact a personal injury lawyer for help today!