Ninth Circuit Panel Slams Door on Oron Appeals

LAS VEGAS, NV—Late Friday, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decisive ruling denying a petition for writ of mandamus filed Aug. 23 by Oron.com lawyers, who also sought an emergency stay of two lower court orders; one entered Aug. 7 that froze Oron's assets while permitting Corbin Fisher parent Liberty Media Holdings to execute on its $550,000 judgment in Liberty Media v FF Magnat, and the other filed Tuesday commanding PayPal to "satisfy the said Judgment as provided by law..." If the lower court orders were not "vacated immediately," claimed the Hong Kong-based file locker in its filing, "Oron will forever be deprived of its due process right to post security and file an appeal without having to pay the judgment and then attempt to recover that judgment from Liberty Media if it succeeds on appeal. "Liberty Media," it continued, "has already sought to collect its judgment from Oron’s PayPal account, and PayPal has indicated that it is prepared to disburse those funds at 1 AM GMT on August 24, 2012." Oron also wanted the appeals court to "vacate the order directing PayPal to satisfy the judgment," and suggested as an alternative that PayPay be directed to deposit the $500,000 with the court instead of with Liberty. Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder, along with Judges A. Wallace Tashima and Marsha S. Berzon rejected the petition outright, stating tersely, "Petitioner has not demonstrated that this case warrants the intervention of this court by means of the extraordinary remedy of mandamus. See Bauman v. United States Dist. Court, 557 F.2d 650 (9th Cir. 1977). Accordingly, the petition is denied." The panel also rejected Oron's emergency motion, using language intended to ensure that it has seen the last of the file locker: "The emergency motion for a stay pending review of the district court’s orders freezing petitioner’s assets and directing disbursement of funds is denied as moot. No further filings shall be accepted in this closed case."