An Appellate Court upheld the findings of a lower court in its denial of Bruce Spry's motion to strike the libel lawsuit against him by auction site BidBay. The Los Angeles County Superior Court filed its opinion on March 4.
Online auction site BidBay, now called AuctionDiner, filed a libel lawsuit against Bruce Spry last April for defamatory statements Spry allegedly posted in an Internet "chat room." Spry denied making the statements.
Spry filed a motion to strike the suit based on a statute enacted to prevent "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation," often referred to as SLAPP suits. The legislative intent of the statute is to stop the use of judicial process to chill speech.
A lower court had denied Spry's Special Anti-Slapp Motion to Strike, because he said he did not make the statements as alleged in the complaint. The Appellate Court agreed with the lower court in Tuesday's opinion. Under the anti-SLAPP statute, certain lawsuits are dismissed because they chill defendants' right to free speech. But, according to the courts, the lawsuit could not "chill defendant's speech because defendant was not engaged in free speech." Spry's denial of having posted the defamatory statements was the reason for the motion's denial.
Background
On April 2, 2002, BidBay (now called AuctionDiner) filed a lawsuit against Bruce Spry, alleging false publication of a criminal nature, and charging libel per se and intentional Interference with prospective economic advantage.
BidBay's lawyer, Barry Sabahat, said at the time that Spry - and some online forums - were " alleging that AuctionDiner and George Tannous are involved in criminal activities." George Tannous owns and operates AuctionDiner and founded BidBay.
Online sites AuctionCow and Mootropolis were also named in the libel lawsuit, but, according to Sabahat, will be dismissed as defendants.
BidBay changed its name to AuctionDiner after eBay sued it for trademark infringement. At the time, Tannous had stated that they could not afford to fight eBay and that it would cost them half a million dollars to do so. BidBay also changed its operations from the typical online-auction site to what it calls MLA multi-level auctions, based on MLM (multi-level-marketing) principles. AuctionDiner subsequently changed the name of its Web site to BidWay.
Remittitur is scheduled for May 5 in the Bidbay.Com, Inc. v. Spry lawsuit. Remittitur is a process by which jurisdiction is transferred back from the appellate court to the trial court.
Spry's attorney could not be reached for comment before press time.
