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Judge Andrew Nicol ruled last November that
Depp had violently assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard during
their tempestuous five-year relationship, at times putting her
in fear for her life.
That decision came after three weeks of hearings where the court
heard claims and counter-claims from Depp, 57, and Heard, 34,
about violent outbursts which each accused the other of
committing.
On Thursday, Depp's lawyers asked the Court of Appeal for
permission to challenge Nicol's findings, arguing the judge had
"failed to examine the evidence and the arguments with the care
that the parties were entitled to expect and which a proper
resolution of the issues demanded".
"The judgment is plainly wrong and the consequential decision in
favour of the respondents is manifestly unsafe," his lawyers
said in a written submission.
Depp, star of films including "Pirates of the Caribbean" and
"Edward Scissorhands", had gone to the London court to sue The
Sun newspaper and one of its journalists over an article that
stated he had been violent towards Heard.
During the libel trial last summer, Heard said Depp would turn
into a jealous alter ego, "the monster", after bingeing on drugs
and alcohol and had threatened to kill her.
Heard detailed 14 occasions of extreme violence when she said
the actor choked, punched, slapped, head-butted, throttled and
kicked her, with Nicol accepting 12 of these accounts were true,
including an assault after her 30th birthday party and another
incident which left her with black eyes.
Depp's lawyers said Nicol's reasons were not supported by
"reasoned analysis of the evidence" but bare assertions.
They argued that he also "uncritically accepted" that Heard must
been correct and discounted evidence "despite the fact that it
undermined her credibility and the account she had given".
Lawyers for News Group Newspapers, the publishers of the Sun,
argued there were no grounds for an appeal.
"It is apparent from the detailed judgment that there is no
basis to conclude that the judge failed to examine the evidence
or provide reasons for his findings," the paper's lawyers said
in their written submission.
They said the arguments put forward by Depp's legal team were
"obviously" or "plainly wrong" and misconceived.
Following Nicol's verdict, seen as being highly damaging to his
career, Depp was asked to leave the "Fantastic Beasts"
franchise, the movie spin-offs from the "Harry Potter" books and
films.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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