Tag Archives: complaint
The Atlantic Responds to Defamation Suit With Anti-SLAPP Motion
The Atlantic Monthly Group and a correspondent have filed an anti-SLAPP/Rule12(b)(6) motion in DC federal court in response to a Complaint by George Boley. The pro se Complaint, filed January 22, 2013, alleges that statements in a January 2010 article and February 2010 follow-up post on the Atlantic website defamed him by stating that he was a warlord in his native Liberia. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages. The defendants’ brief in support of their anti-SLAPP and Rule 12(b)(6) motions first chronicles Boley’s tenure as leader of the Liberian Peace Council, citing to and quoting from a U.S. State Department …
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What are “private” vs “public” interests under DC anti-SLAPP statute?
We should get more insight into the answer to that question after the DC Superior Court rules in the pending case of Campbell v. CGI Group, Inc. because, after attending last Thursday’s oral argument, that is the issue on which the anti-SLAPP motion filed by Compass Solutions will turn. A quick reminder on how we got here. According to the Complaint filed by Campbell, Compass allegedly contacted her supervisor and stated that she was engaging in improper and unethical conduct, which led to her termination. Campbell alleged that the true purpose of the communication was to remove her from her position (the Chief Operating Officer for the …
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National Review SLAPPs at Mann climate change libel suit
As I predicted last month, Michael Mann’s suit against the National Review, Competitive Enterprise Institute and two of their contributors, has resulted in an anti-SLAPP motion filed by the defendants, along with a companion Rule 12(b)(6) motion.
Another judge to decide if anti-SLAPP statute applies in federal court
In response to a libel complaint filed by Yasser Abbas, one of the sons of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, the defendants have filed an anti-SLAPP motion and a separate motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim. (The law firm representing Schanzer is the same one that filed an anti-SLAPP motion on behalf of the City Paper in response to the suit brought by Dan Snyder. Snyder ultimately dismissed his suit before the court ruled on the anti-SLAPP motion).
Recent Suits Show Why Anti-Slapp Statute Is Important
Two relatively recent cases caught my eye and reinforced why it is so important that DC passed anti-SLAPP legislation last year. In King v. Hludzenski, filed in a New York state court north of Syracuse, the plaintiffs are former town officials and other public figures who allege that two bloggers, allegedly highly critical of the town’s plans to install wind farms, defamed them. And in Thomas v. Barrett, filed in a Michigan federal court, two animal rescue organizations and its owners allege that several North Carolina defendants defamed them by making comments on Facebook.
Maddow and NBC Defendants Move to Stay Second Dean Suit
Rachel Maddow and related NBC defendants today moved to stay the federal court lawsuit filed by Bradley Dean until an identical suit can be resolved in the Superior Court. As I previously explained, on February 21, Dean voluntarily moved to dismiss his Superior Court action, explaining that he intended to refile it in federal court “due to the Court’s recent decision in 3M v. Boulter, No. 11-cv-1527 (RLW).” True to his word, he filed his federal court complaint, which is virtually identical to his Superior Court complaint, on February 21. (The case was randomly assigned to Judge Leon, which is …
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Anti-SLAPP Statute Raised in Another High-Profile Federal Court Case
Lanny Davis and his related companies, which are defendants in a defamation suit pending in DC federal court that is captioned 3M v. Boulter, today filed a motion to dismiss the suit under DC’s anti-SLAPP statute. The complaint, which was filed on June 28, 2011, alleges that, in early 2007, a 3M subsidiary acquired all of the outstanding shares of Acolyte, a British company engaged in the business of developing and marketing products whose aim was to detect certain dangerous microorganisms. It alleges that, at the time of the acquisition, Acolyte’s only commercially viable product was a device that allegedly allowed …
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