BOSTON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A publisher owes nothing to the writer of a hoax memoir about surviving the Holocaust with the help of wolves, a Massachusetts appeals court ruled.
But Mount Ivy Press owner Jane Daniel -- publisher of the 1997 best-selling "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years" -- does owe $10 million to the book's ghostwriter, who did not know the story was a hoax, the state appellate court ruled.
A jury had awarded $22.5 million to hoax author Misha Defonseca and $10 million to ghostwriter Vera Lee in a dispute over the best-selling book's profits.
Judge Gabrielle R. Wolohojian wrote Daniel did not have to pay Defonseca, 73, because the jury had been inappropriately swayed by the false story that Defonseca was Jewish, survived the Holocaust as a child by roaming through Europe on foot, and received protection and food from a pack of wolves.
It was later learned that Defonseca, born Monique de Wael in Belgium and now living in Dudley, Mass., is not Jewish and was safely attending a Brussels school during the time she claimed she was a refugee.
In addition, her father, Robert de Wael, reportedly provided information about the Belgian resistance movement to the Nazis.
Defonseca's lie was "so emotionally inflammatory" that it impeded "the jury's ability impartially to evaluate facts and adjudicate a case," Wolohojian wrote.
Daniel had no immediate comment on the ruling, but her lawyer, Brian McCormick, called it fair -- although he told The Boston Globe he would appeal part of the ruling because he believed Defonseca's conduct tainted the trial.
Defonseca told the Globe she had long ago written off receiving money from Daniel.
"I want my life back. I want peace. This has been very painful," she told the newspaper.
Lee's lawyer said he would begin collecting on the $10 million by selling Daniel's $2 million home.
