Andrew Wakefield, who was stripped of his British medical license in 2010 for autism research that ignited a worldwide vaccine scare, cannot sue a U.K. medical journal, its editor and a British reporter for defamation in Texas, a judge in Austin ruled Friday.
In a one-paragraph order, Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum said Texas courts don't have jurisdiction over the defendants. She tossed out the case.
Wakefield, who is 55 and lives in Austin, vowed to appeal. "We think we have a very good argument" to pursue, said Wakefield, who says he is working in Austin but declined to say where.
Wakefield has previously sued reporter Brian Deer in the U.K., but he withdrew those suits because, he said, he was dealing with a hearing on his medical license before U.K.'s General Medical Council, which regulates doctors. The council found Wakefield guilty of serious professional misconduct, citing dishonest, irresponsible research he performed in 1998; actions contrary to the interests of children; conflicts of interests regarding his involvement in a lawsuit against a measles-mumps-rubella vaccine; and failing to disclose his involvement in seeking a patent for a rival vaccine.
Wakefield said he was innocent of those charges. In January, he sued Deer and his editor, Fiona Godlee, for a 2011 journal article, claiming they had defamed him by calling his work fraudulent.
Godlee and Deer called the case frivolous and said it fit a pattern of Wakefield trying to silence his critics with lawsuits.
"We're very pleased with the court's decision," said defense attorney Marc Fuller at Vinson & Elkins in Dallas. "We stood behind the reporting in the case, and from our perspective, it's over."
Contact Mary Ann Roser at 445-3619