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Nielsen Wins Motion to Dismiss in Case Brought by New Delhi Television Company
- Client News
- March 4, 2013
Practices
The Nielsen Company and other Nielsen entities achieved a victory when Justice O. Peter Sherwood of the New York State Supreme Court granted Nielsen's motion to dismiss in full from the bench at oral argument on the motion.
New Delhi TV, an Indian broadcasting company, alleged that TAM, an Indian TV ratings company partially owned by a Nielsen India entity, neither of whom were named as a party in the case, misused the "Nielsen Process," which resulted in corrupt and inaccurate TV ratings in India that harmed NDTV. As Nielsen argued and Justice Sherwood agreed, the core of Plaintiff's complaint against Nielsen was that it failed to regulate TAM's implementation of the "Nielsen Process." NDTV sued Nielsen for negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy to defraud, breach of oral contract, promissory fraud, promissory estoppel, fraudulent inducement, tortious interference with prospective advantage, and prima facie tort.
After approximately two hours of oral argument, most of which entailed animated, and at times highly critical, questioning of Plaintiff's counsel, Justice Sherwood granted Nielsen's motion on all three grounds upon which it was based: forum non conveniens, failure to name a necessary party (TAM), and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Justice Sherwood agreed with Nielsen that if this case belongs anywhere, it belongs in India, and dismissed the case under CPLR 327(a) for inconvenient forum. He further held that the case should be dismissed for failure to name TAM. Finally, Justice Sherwood dismissed the negligence claim for failure to state a cause of action, and declared that in the interest of time, he would not go through every single cause of action, but were he to, he would dismiss them all for failure to state a claim.
The Paul, Weiss team included litigation partners Daniel Leffell and Aidan Synnott and counsel David Schwartz-Leeper. Aidan Synnott argued the motion.