Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
What Jozawun said is basically right; there may be a cause of action against Armstrong under the California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act. Basically, if you make certain kinds of false statements in order to sell goods, and people buy the goods in reliance on the false statement, you've violated the act and can be sued.
The hardest thing about these kind of suits is proving reliance, and I see that as being a big problem in this case. I'm not sure how the plaintiffs will prove that they bought the book because they believed that it was all true, as opposed to having simply bought the book because it was written by Armstrong and they were interested in what he had to say.
Reliance is a problem for the class, too, such that it might be hard to establish a class action.
(There's also a statute of limitations issue, but it might be tolled).
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I see California is code, we're common law here in Victoria.
As with you, the key problem is proving reliance.
There would also be a S/L problem with any civil action, but it could be avoided by a claim that the facts have only just become known.
Interestingly there is no S/L on perjury here, because it's a major crime (you can cop up to 15 years). Not that he committed perjury here. He may have told some punishable fibs to Customs, which would come back to bite him on the bum if he ever again lands in Oz.