The feud (and social media battle) between Teen Mom 2 stars Briana DeJesus and Kail Lowry may be on-going but their lawsuit is finally over.

The Ashley can reveal that, on Monday morning, a judge dismissed the defamation lawsuit Kail filed against Briana last year. In court documents obtained by The Ashley, Judge Robert Egan declared that “the case is hereby dismissed and Judgment is entered in favor of [Briana] and against [Kail].” The judgement came from the Judge’s chambers so it does not appear that a hearing took place. 

The judge wrote that he took all of the arguments, depositions and evidence into action to make this decision.

He also ruled that Briana’s Anti-SLAPP Motion for Summary Judgement has been granted. (FYI:  Anti-SLAPP– stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” and is defined by anti-SLAPP.org as lawsuits “used to silence and harass critics by forcing them to spend money to defend these baseless suits.”)

As for whether or not Kail will be responsible for paying Briana’s legal fees, that is still undetermined by the court.

“The Court reserves jurisdiction to consider the issue of entitlement to attorneys’
fees and the amount of same,” the judge ruled. (However, generally with anti-SLAPP motions in Florida, whichever party wins is entitled to recover attorney’s fees and costs.)

As The Ashley has previously reported, the lawsuit began in July 2021, when Kail filed a defamation lawsuit against Briana, claiming that an interview Bri gave to a clickbait site, as well as an Instagram Live session Briana did about ‘Teen Mom 2’ and Kail, caused Kail and her brand harm. During the interview in question— which Briana gave to Celebuzz on June 9—Briana claimed that Kail “physically beat” Chris Lopez (who is the father of Kail’s sons Lux and Creed), and broke into and entered the home of Chris’ mother.

Kail and Briana both gave depositions earlier this year, with Briana’s history with Chris coming into play, and Kail insisting that any sexual relationship between the two of them be disclosed and left on the public record, something Briana refused. (You can read all the things Briana confessed and said during her deposition by clicking here, and you can read Kail’s by clicking here!) 

Here, The Ashley breaks down the legal documents explaining why Kail’s lawsuit was dismissed:

Why Kail lost: 

Anyway, according to the judge’s ruling, Kail lost the lawsuit due to a few major things. In Briana’s original August 2021 response to Kail filing her lawsuit, Briana filed a motion for summary judgement and claimed the lawsuit against her should be dismissed for two reasons: first, that Kail failed to comply with Florida’s pre-suit notice requirements; and second, that Kail’s lawsuit violated Florida’s “Anti-SLAPP” statute, which “prohibits so-called ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation.’” 

The judge ruled that Kail did not provide Briana proper notification of the lawsuit before she filed it. Since the alleged defamatory statements were made on social media (which qualifies as “other medium” in the eyes of the law), it was necessary for Kail to provide the pre-suit notification, which she did not.

Next, it had to be decided if Briana qualified as a “media defendant.” If she did, that would again require the notification. However, because Bri’s Instagram Live broadcast only covered her own life and her involvement with ‘Teen Mom 2,’ it was ruled that she was not a media defendant. Still, Kail was required to provide the notification before filing because an Instagram Live broadcast qualifies as “other medium” and makes it necessary.

Moving on to the second part, it was ruled a SLAPP because the statements Briana made (both written and oral) were made in connection to a television show.

“Generally, anti-SLAPP statutes are designed to protect rights of free speech and prevent people from using courts to intimidate people from exercising their right of free speech,” the court docs read. “In Florida, §768.295 specifically protects ‘free speech in connection with public issues’ which is defined, in part, as ‘any written or oral statement that is protected under applicable law and … is made or in connection with a play, movie, television program…Because the statements at issue relate to the ‘Teen Mom 2’ television show, analysis under anti-SLAPP is appropriate.”

Briana was required to provide sufficient evidence that the anti-SLAPP motion applies, which she did. After that, the burden is shifted to Kail to prove that her claims against Briana are not based primarily on the First Amendment freedom of speech rights. The judge ruled that Kail did not do this.

Why the judge ruled that Briana’s statements about Kail’s arrest weren’t defamatory: 

The judge threw out the claims against Briana’s written Instagram post right away, stating that it isn’t defamatory because, legally, it contains protected speech that was either Briana’s opinion or statements that were actually true.

The judge wrote that Briana’s statement about Kail getting arrested after getting into a physical altercation with Chris was not defamatory because Kail “was, indeed, arrested for ‘allegedly’ having a physical altercation with Chris.”

As for Bri’s Instagram Live broadcast, the judge stated that it, too, contained mostly Briana’s opinions on topics such as her relationship with Kail and other ‘Teen Mom’ co-stars, why she felt certain footage was cut from an episode, and the opinion that Kail doesn’t want to film her “true life” for ‘Teen Mom 2’. 

The statement Kail claimed was defamatory– Briana’s statement that Kail “did not want to film about the situation with the domestic violence, about her getting arrested, about her breaking and entering in Kail’s mom, I mean into Chris’s mom’s house. She didn’t want to film about her hitting Chris, because Chris cut her son’s hair. She doesn’t want to film about any of that”– was determined not to be defamation.

The judge made this determination because Kail was arrested for a claim she battered Chris in his mom’s home after Lux’s haircut. 

Although Briana’s statement that Kail committed “breaking and entering” was not determined to be fact, the judge ruled that “the mere addition of [Briana’s] statement
about ‘breaking and entering’ does not change the gist of the statement that [Kail]
had been arrested.”

The judge ruled that is was “widely publicized” that Kail had been arrested and “[Briana’s]
comments on the issue were substantially true. The damage to [Kail’s] reputation, if any, had already occurred when the incident was publicized by news media.”

Why the judge felt Briana did not make the statements with “actual malice”:

Because Kail is a “limited public figure” due to her being famous from the show and other things, she also had to prove that Briana said what she said with “actual malice.” (In very broad terms, this means that Briana made the statements, knowing that they were false or with “reckless disregard for the truth,” knowing they were probably false but still saying them.)

Because she’s a public figure, Kail had to prove that Briana had a “high
degree of awareness of … probable falsity” of her statements. The judge stated that Kail failed to do this.

“[Kail] has provided insufficient evidence to establish by clear and convincing evidence that [Briana] knew, with a high degree of awareness, that her statements were false,” he wrote in the court docs.

He again stated that Bri’s claim that Kail committed breaking and entering did not change the fact that Kail had been arrested and “did not enhance the sting of previous publications about Lowry’s arrest.”

Furthermore, there was not enough evidence to prove that Briana knew her statement was false when she made it. 

After the lawsuit was dismissed, Briana, Kail, Jade Cline and Briana’s mom Roxanne all weighed in on the decision. Click here to read what they all had to say. 

(Photos: MTV; Instagram; WEtv)