Court Throws Out Justin Baldoni’s $400 Million Countersuit Against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Justin Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds has officially come to an end. According to court documents reviewed by PEOPLE, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman signed an order dismissing the case after Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios team missed their chance to refile.

The case was first thrown out back in June. At that time, the judge dismissed the defamation claims but allowed Baldoni and his co-plaintiffs to refile their allegations against Lively for breach of implied covenant and interference with contract. However, they never did.

In an update from Judge Liman, he said that he reached out to both sides on October 17 to warn them he would close the case if no new filings came in. Only Lively’s team responded.

She asked the court to make the dismissal final but requested that her claim for legal fees remain open, which the judge approved. Baldoni can still appeal the decision if he chooses.

This lawsuit was Baldoni’s response to an earlier case filed by Lively. Late last year, she took her It Ends With Us co-star and director to the California Civil Rights Department, accusing him of se**** harassment and of leading a smear campaign against her after she came forward. She also filed a separate federal case in New York.

Baldoni then countersued, demanding $400 million in damages from Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist Leslie Sloane.

He accused them of defamation, civil extortion, invasion of privacy, and breach of contract. He also filed a separate $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for publishing Lively’s allegations.

When the case was dismissed in June, Judge Liman ruled that Lively’s statements were legally protected because they were made as part of a complaint to a government agency and later reported on by the press.

The court also found that Reynolds, Sloane, and The New York Times did not defame Baldoni, saying they had no reason to question Lively’s account of what happened.

After the ruling, Lively’s lawyers, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, called it a clear win. “As we have said from day one, this ‘$400 million’ lawsuit was a sham, and the Court saw right through it,” they said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly.

“We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys’ fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni, [Wayfarer co-founder Steve] Sarowitz, [publicist Melissa] Nathan, and the other Wayfarer Parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation.”

Lively also spoke out on Instagram, saying she was relieved by the decision and expressing her determination to continue standing up for women’s rights. She wrote that she is “more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman’s right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story.”

Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, criticized the reaction from Lively’s side, calling their statements misleading. “This case is about false accusations of se**** harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively’s own team conveniently describes as ‘untraceable’ because they cannot prove what never happened,” Freedman said.

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