Judge throws out suit against 'The Help' author
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Did Kathryn Stockett use her brother's African-American maid as the basis for a character in the bestselling novel-turned-movie "The Help?"
For now, that question may go unanswered, by a court anyway.
A Mississippi judge threw out a lawsuit today in which Ablene Cooper alleged Stockett used her likeness without permission in a book about relationships between white families and their black maids in the segregated South of the 1960s.
Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green granted a motion for summary judgment, dismissing the case because a one-year statute of limitations elapsed between when Stockett gave Cooper a copy of the book and when the lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit sought $75,000 in damages.
Stockett was not in court in Jackson, the same city where the book is set.
Cooper wiped away tears leaving the courtroom and launched into a tirade outside the courthouse.
"She's a liar. She did it. She knows she did it," Cooper screamed.
The judge did not make any determination on whether Cooper was the basis for the character, Aibileen, saying the statute of limitations trumped those matters.