Court awards $250 damages in U.Va. email case

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Supreme Court has awarded $250 damages to the University of Virginia and former professor Michael Mann in a case that involved Mann’s emails regarding climate change.

The court’s recent order only states the amount of damages that the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute must pay. It doesn’t provide details about the rationale behind the award.

The institute sued in 2011 after U.Va. refused to turn over emails requested by the group under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. The Supreme Court ruled in April that Mann’s emails were propriety records dealing with scholarly research.

Mann tells The Daily Progress (http://bit.ly/1raJi0m) that the damages are recognition that the lawsuit was frivolous.

The institute’s executive director, Craig Richardson, tells the newspaper that the award’s amount shows the case wasn’t frivolous.

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Information from: The Daily Progress, http://www.dailyprogress.com

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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