Parkmerced Investors v. Does 1 -18
Landlords owning two large apartment complexes in California’s Bay Area filed suit in federal court in San Francisco against anonymous tenants and former tenants who criticized their management on the ratings site apartmentratings.com, alleging defamation and Lanham Act claims, then, without obtaining leave of court, served subpoenas to identify those posters and others. Arguing that there was no basis for claiming a violation of federal law, and that there was no evidence showing that the negative statements were actionable, Public Citizen moved for a protective order against enforcement of the subpoena, and sought to have the entire complaint dismissed as a SLAPP suit. The motion was not decided because plaintiff dropped our client from the litigation.