I was approached by several couples who signed with Ami Manor a year and eight months ago and to date only 4 rehearsals have been made for them!!
I signed with you a year ago. If you saw that you were not meeting your alleged obligations, why did you sign an agreement with me?
As a journalist, I tell you, in order to judge well what is written in the newspapers.
*In the next chapter... My opinion on "defamation",
And why am I not afraid"
- The second of three publications - a November 2022 appeal to about 150 doctors and IVF department directors
In November 2022, the defendant contacted about 150 doctors and IVF department directors in an email, in order to gather evidence for the investigation she requested to conduct. The announcement referred to the surrogate company and the plaintiff's name was not mentioned at all, and as the publication put it, "When I began researching the matter, I discovered dozens of couples telling different stories about Manor... Those who point to alleged serious conduct - illegal contracts that were signed, contracts that could not be fulfilled, the whitewashing of documents relating to alleged fetuses, suspicion of surveillance by the company of couples... The concerns raised by the testimonies are serious."
- The third of three publications - publication from 2/10/2022 on the social network Facebook
- On October 2, 2022, the defendant published another publication in the Facebook group she had opened, referring to the sale of the surrogacy company to Daniel. The plaintiff's name was not included in the publication at all, and it mentioned a claim of 'inflating' the surrogacy company's revenues. According to the plaintiff, even though his name did not appear in the publication, it was intended to defame him and his family.
- The publication reads: "In my personal opinion - they did this in order to inflate the company's revenues before selling it. According to the Israeli embassy, they acted in violation of the law..." Following the comments on the post, the defendant added: "They continued to sign couples even though it was forbidden even during the Corona period because it was before the sale of the company."
- Additional publications (!) beyond the three defined in the statement of claim as the first, second and third publications
In addition to the three publications in which the plaintiff gave marks, referred to them as the first, second and third publications - the plaintiff referred to additional publications as detailed below:
- Fourth publication - correspondence dated 2/9/2022 with a lady named Miran Siso. The correspondence will be quoted in section 7.1(i) below.
- Fifth Publication - Publication from 21/11/2022 in which the plaintiff's name does not appear at all. The publication refers to the concern that "Manor Medical has allegedly signed many couples contracts that it knows in advance that it cannot meet... This is in order to "inflate" the company's value and sell it to Danel at a value of ILS 100 million. Everything is ostensible, of course, and it's up to the court, not to my discretion."
- Sixth Publication - Publication dated 16/1/2023 which referred to the surrogate company. The publication included a picture of Danel's CEO, as well as a picture of the plaintiff and a reference to previous publications. The publication states that the defendant is collecting material for a large television investigation about the surrogacy company as well as other companies. Here, too, the statement of claim was careful not to cite the quotation of the publication, but it was attached as an appendix to the statement of claim. The publication reads: "We have recently collected from all the couples into a large television investigation about Manor, Danel and other companies, then we will turn to the legal side and I hope we will help you find"
- Seventh Publication - For the sake of caution, I will refer to another publication that appeared in the plaintiff's summaries, the same publication that was defined in the statement of claim as the "first publication". The same publication appeared, as stated in clause 6.1(a) above, both on the social network Facebook and on the defendant's website.
Here there is another confusion between the definition of the publication in the statement of claim, its definition in the affidavit, and its definition in the plaintiff's summaries. In the statement of claim, the publication in both places was defined as "the first publication" - and see paragraphs 26-27 of the statement of claim; In the plaintiff's affidavit as well, the publication in both places was defined as "the first publication" - see paragraphs 22-23 of the affidavit; In the framework of the plaintiff's summaries, it was claimed that this was a separate, additional, and independent publication which was the "fourth publication" (paragraph 20 of the plaintiff's summaries).
- Summary of the parties' arguments
- Summary of the plaintiff's arguments
- The plaintiff was a shareholder and CEO of the surrogacy company in the past and prior to the publication and filing of the lawsuit. A company that was the largest and leading in the field of surrogacy. The surrogacy company was sold to a third party, and on April 1, 2022, the plaintiff was fired, as he put it, from his job at the company.
- On October 7, 2021, the defendant entered into an agreement with the surrogacy company to accompany parenting proceedings abroad (hereinafter: the "Agreement"). In accordance with the agreement, the company acted with a surrogate from Georgia. At a certain point, after the embryo had already been absorbed into the surrogate's womb, she traveled to her relatives, and could not be reached for a week until she was found.
- Although the plaintiff was fired, he and his family came to the defendant's aid. After about a week, the surrogate was located and a meeting was scheduled between her and the defendant in order to calm the defendant. The defendant and her spouse expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the plaintiff and his family.
- The surrogacy process was stopped due to a natural abortion that the surrogate underwent. When the defendant learned of the abortion and began a focused hunt by the surrogacy company, the plaintiff and his family began. All this under the guise of ostensibly "objective investigation." In August 2022, the defendant opened a Facebook group called "Surrogacy - Revealing the Truth", and a website called "Surrogacy - Comprehensive Knowledge in Israel". As of the date of filing the statement of claim, the group has about 1,000 members.
- The group and the site were intended to carry out a "witch hunt" of the plaintiff and his family. For example, the website's homepage opens with the words , "The surrogacy process with Manor Medical has become a nightmare of my life... I decided to set up a Facebook group and a website so that information would be accessible to everyone." According to the plaintiff, the defendant fabricated a fictional story according to which he signed contracts for fertility treatments in order to inflate and create a fictitious value for the company so that he could maximize its value.
- First publication - The plaintiff refers to the first publication for which the claim was filed, and in this regard see the quotation of the publication in section 6.1(a) above.
- Second publication - The plaintiff further refers to the second publication for which the claim was filed, and in this regard see the quotation of the publication in section 6.1(b) above. The plaintiff admits that his name does not appear in the publication, but the publication is one link in a chain of publications carried out by the defendant, so that even in the absence of his name, anyone who is exposed to the publication knows who he is referring to. The plaintiff also refers to the plaintiff's statement - "And again this is my opinion alone" and claims that this is lip service, since the reasonable reader will understand this as a fait accompli.
- Third Publication - On October 2, 2022, the defendant published a third publication for which the claim was filed, and for this purpose see the quotation in section 6.1(c) above.
- The defendant's publications received many exposure and responses, in which the defendant also participated and continued to plant the messages she tried to convey. For example, on September 2, 2022, the defendant published a post on the Facebook group "Surrogacy and Egg Donation - Miran's Counseling Group" that corresponds with the other publications. The post was responded to by a woman named Miran Siso, who the defendant removed from the group she opened, apparently due to her different opinions and the support she showed towards the plaintiff and his family. The following is from the correspondence:
Miran Siso: "I don't believe all this nonsense, maybe it happened when others were running the company. During the time of the Manor family, everything was perfectly fine, I went through two wonderful processes with them. Ami Manor and Tali Manor are angels that you are trying to turn into criminals."