Kirill Vesselov v. Laird Harrison, 24-10396

Plaintiffs (Kirill Vesselov, Mikhail Vesselov, and Haven Health Management, LLC) sued Laird Harrison and Medscape for defamation concerning a Medscape article covering Gilead Sciences’ lawsuit against them for allegedly defrauding a medication-assistance program.
The article summarized Gilead’s allegations regarding a scheme to profit illegally from AIDS prevention drugs provided to low-income patients.
Plaintiffs argued the article falsely implied they were guilty by omitting their denials and the fact that the settlement did not admit liability, and by misreporting that their counsel declined to comment.
The district court dismissed the claim under Rule 12(b)(6), holding the article was privileged under Florida’s fair-report privilege, which protects fair and accurate news reports of official proceedings.
The court also dismissed Harrison individually for lack of presuit notice by Plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs appealed the district court’s dismissal to the Eleventh Circuit.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Applicability of Florida’s fair-report privilege	Article omitted key facts (denials, non-admission in settlement), giving a false impression of guilt	Article is a substantially accurate account of official judicial proceedings, protected by privilege	Article is privileged under Florida law; omission did not remove protection
Defamatory implication by omission	Omission of denials and settlement details gives defamatory implication	Not every omission creates actionable defamation; focus was on the Gilead settlement, not all litigation details	No actionable defamatory implication by omission
Statement that Plaintiffs’ counsel declined comment	Claimed false; real counsel wasn't contacted, implies admission	Reasonable reporting; declining comment is not admission of guilt	No reasonable reader would interpret declining comment as admission
Use of third-party commentary about fraud vulnerability	Implies Plaintiffs’ guilt	Commentary was not about Plaintiffs specifically or the truth of the allegations	Expert commentary not actionable nor reasonably implicating guilt

Huszar v. Gross, 468 So. 2d 512 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1985) (recognizing Florida’s fair report privilege for accurate, impartial reports of judicial proceedings)
Alan v. Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc., 973 So. 2d 1177 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2008) (clarifying requirements and scope of the fair report privilege)
Woodard v. Sunbeam Television Corp., 616 So. 2d 501 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1993) (privilege applies if news report is substantially correct)
Carson v. News-Journal Corp., 790 So. 2d 1120 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2001) (privilege covers reports containing substance of public documents)
Ortega v. Post-Newsweek Stations, Fla., Inc., 510 So. 2d 972 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1987) (reporting from second-hand or mixed sources does not defeat privilege)