La'Tiejira v. Facebook, Inc., Civ. A. H–16–2574
Decision Date | 07 August 2017 |
Docket Number | Civ. A. H–16–2574 |
Parties | Paree LA'TIEJIRA, Plaintiff, v. FACEBOOK, INC., Mark Zuckerberg, Kyle Anders and Fictitious Defendants A,B,C, Defendants. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas |
Debra V. Jennings, Law Office of Debra Jennings, Missouri City, TX, Jimmie L J Brown, Jr., Attorney at Law, Missouri City, TX, for Plaintiff.
Ann Marie Painter, Hayden M. Schottlaender, Ann Marie Painter, Perkins Coie LLP, Dallas, TX, Ryan Spear, Perkins Coie LLP, Seattle, WA, William Wyatt Maxwell, Leon Capital Group LLC, Dallas, TX, for Defendants.
A hearing was held on the motion on August 2, 2017. After careful review of the record and the applicable law, the Court concludes that the Facebook Defendants have correctly interpreted the law and applied it to the facts here, demonstrating that their motion to dismiss all of La'Tiejira's claims against them under the TCPA and the CDA should be granted with prejudice for the reasons stated below.
The First Amended Complaint (# 27) asserts that Plaintiff is a resident of Houston, Texas; Facebook is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Menlo Park, California; and Zuckerberg is a resident of California and co-founder and CEO of Facebook. These facts are not contested. Because in nearly eleventh months' time Plaintiff was never able to identify or find the location of Defendants Kyle Anders, A, B, and C to serve them, and thus never able to establish subject matter or personal jurisdiction over them, after substantial notice the Court recently dismissed the claims against them (# 51).1
Defendants have requested that the Court address the TCPA motion first (# 32 at p.2; # 33 at p.1.).
Sections 27.001 – 27.011 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code Ann. (West 2011), constitute the TCPA, which . . In re Lipsky , 460 S.W.3d 579, 584, 586 (Tex. 2015). Usually the motion "must be filed within sixty days after the service of the legal action, although the TCPA provides that a court can extend the filing deadline on a showing of good cause." NCDR , 745 F.3d at 746, citing § 27.003(b). Its "purpose is to identify and summarily dispose of lawsuits designed only to chill First Amendment rights, not to dismiss meritorious lawsuits." Id. at 589, citing § 27.0023 ( ). In addition, the statute also requires a "prima facie case," which traditionally means the "minimum quantum of evidence necessary to support a rational inference that the allegation of fact is true." Lipsky , 460 S.W.3d at 590, citing In re E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. , 136 S.W.3d 218, 223 (Tex. 2004). See also Serafine v. Blunt , 466 S.W.3d 352, 358 (Tex. App.–Austin June 26, 2015) () (citing Rehak Creative Services, Inc. v. Witt , 404 S.W.3d 716, 726 (Tex. App.–Houston [14th Dist.] 2013, petition denied) ). Although the TCPA is a state law, it applies to Texas law claims in a federal court sitting in diversity. NDCR , 745 F.3d at 752–53 ; Brown v. Wimberly, 477 Fed.Appx. 214, 216 (5th Cir. 2012).
Id. at 589. At the hearing counsel for the Facebook Defendants argued that as movants they satisfied the three steps in their analysis: (1) they showed that their the dispute with La'Tiejira related to activity dealing with free speech (defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress,4 implied breach of contract)5 (2) about a matter of public concern (defamation claims and publishing on the internet) (3) that is related to a public figure (La'Tiejira as a adult entertainment actress who made substantial sums of money at the time).
While deciding if the plaintiff's claim should be dismissed, the court should consider the pleadings and any supporting affidavits. Id. at 587, citing § 27.006(a).
The filing of the motion usually stays discovery, § 27.003(c)...
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