Kolodziej v. Mason

While representing a client charged with quadruple murder, attorney James Mason (defendant) told a Dateline interviewer that his client couldn't have committed the murders because he was hundreds of miles away in Atlanta at the time, and challenged the prosecution to prove the travel timeline the state's theory required, saying, "I challenge anybody to show me... I'll pay them a million dollars if they can do it." The interview aired after Mason's client was convicted and sentenced to death, edited to omit the middle portion of the quote. Dustin Kolodziej (plaintiff), a law student who saw the aired interview, accepted the "challenge" and videotaped himself successfully making the trip, then sued Mason in Texas federal court when Mason refused to pay. The district court granted Mason summary judgment, finding his statement mere hyperbole rather than a unilateral offer Kolodziej could accept, and Kolodziej appealed.