The dean of Widener University Delaware Law School argued Wednesday that comments by attorneys representing TransPerfect co-founder Elizabeth Elting had made it impossible for rival Philip R. Shawe to prevail in the Chancery Court battle over control of the profitable translation-services company.

The argument, from Rodney Smolla, came of Shawe's appeal of a New York judge's decision earlier this year to dismiss Shawe's defamation case against Elting's Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel lawyers, in one of the last remaining disputes to stem from the contentious Delaware case.

Smolla, a First Amendment scholar who has served as dean of Delaware Law since 2015, told a New York appeals court that Philip Kaufman and Ronald Greenberg were being purposefully disingenuous when they told a pair of journalists in early 2016 that they had information about Shawe that would make their “jaw drop.”

The statements came as Shawe was locked in a heated battle with Elting, his ex-fiance, over who would win control the company they had started from a college dorm room in 1992. According to court documents, Kaufman and Greenberg told the reporters that they could not disclose the information, but once it became public, Shawe “wouldn't be able to finance his way out of his own bathtub.”

Smolla argued that the allegedly false comments were designed to make Shawe appear toxic to the wider investing community and to scare away potential bidders for the company, while the legal battle was still playing out in the Delaware courts.

“The complaint lays out the factual atmosphere that leads one to a plausible allegation that at the time they made the statements, they knew the statements were in fact not true, and they were trying to make them a self-fulfilling prophesy,” Smolla told a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of the First Department of the New York Supreme Court.

A media representative for Kramer Levin did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

Floyd Abrams, who represented Kramer Levin, countered that Kaufman and Greenberg were speaking on behalf of their client and that their speech was protected because it was made in the context of ongoing litigation. The statements, Abrams said, referenced a forthcoming sanctions decision from Chancery Court Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard, which ordered Shawe to pay $7.1 million in Elting's attorney fees for lying under oath and attempting to destroy evidence.

“This is not a free-standing statement with respect to everything which could affect the view of somebody thinking of financing Mr. Shawe,” said Abrams, a First Amendment expert and senior counsel with Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York. “This is a statement about, and only about, the impact of what was likely to be, and turned out to be a very, very strong denunciation of Mr. Shawe because of his misbehavior.”

Bouchard, who himself became the target of litigation from Shawe, eventually ordered TransPerfect to be sold in a court-monitored auction, a decision which was later upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court.

In February, Shawe emerged as the winning bidder when the state high court approved his $770 million offer to take full ownership of TransPerfect.

Former Commercial Division Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich tossed Shawe's defamation lawsuit Feb. 20, saying the attorneys' statements were based on factual findings from the Delaware proceedings.

“Shawe's conclusory assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, there was no suggestion that any of these statements was based on undisclosed facts more damaging than those explicitly cited by the speakers,” she said.

Kornreich, who also presided over Shawe's tort case against Delaware law firm Potter Anderson & Corroon for allegedly making a misleading application for attorney fees on behalf of Elting, had previously called for an end to TransPerfect-related litigation and last November threatened a nationwide filing injunction against Shawe.

On Wednesday, Abrams echoed Kornreich's sentiments to conclude his argument on appeal.

“There must come a time when litigation by an individual ends,” he said.

“I think Justice Kornreich put it very well: it is time for this saga to end.”