Judge Allows Harassment Suit Against Craigslist
- by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, June 13, 2010
Even though sites typically are immune from liability for material created by users, judge Peter Busch in San Francisco County Superior Court ruled that Craigslist appeared to have opened itself up to suit by allegedly promising to remove the harassing posts.
"The allegation is that a Craigslist employee made a promise," Busch said at a recent hearing, adding that such an allegation was sufficient to allow the harassment victim to proceed with the case. He stayed the order to give Craigslist an opportunity to appeal.
The case dates to February, when a Kern County man identified in court papers only as Scott P. sued Craigslist for allegedly failing to honor a promise to keep ads with his name and phone number off the site.
He alleged in his original complaint that in March of 2009 he began receiving phone calls at his home from men seeking homosexual liaisons. Shortly afterward, people called him in hopes of purchasing a vintage car. Next, "dozens" of people allegedly appeared at his home to claim furniture he had supposedly advertised as available for free.
He said he learned that the callers and visitors were all responding to Craigslist ads by someone impersonating him. He alerted the police, who allegedly figured out that the posts had been made by his boss, according to court documents.
Scott said in court papers that he complained to Craigslist and that a representative agreed to remove the posts and prevent similar ads in the future.
The judge said that Scott's lawsuit seemed similar to one brought against Yahoo by Oregon resident Cecilia Barnes, who sued after an ex-boyfriend posted a fake profile of her on Yahoo. In that case, Yahoo allegedly reneged on a promise to delete the profile.
Barnes sued and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that Yahoo could face liability for breach of contract for failing to delete the post.
