Poster of Non Defamatory Comments Can Remain Anonymous
A poster who made comments about the son of a former town trustee during an election may remain anonymous because the trustee did not show the posts were defamatory, an Illinois appellate court found.
The appellate court reversed a Cook County judge who found that the poster’s identity must be turned over to the trustee’s attorneys. Here’s a copy of the trial court’s decision. “While the law is clear that there is no right to defame another citizen, we cannot condone the inevitable fishing expeditions that would ensue were the trial court’s order to be upheld,” the appellate court wrote.
The identity was sought under an Illinois Supreme Court rule that allows a party to obtain the identity of another party who might be responsible in damages to the party seeking the identity.
The appellate court found that before a person’s identity can be revealed the party seeking the identity in a defamation case must show that the discovery is necessary by pleading “facts to show that the allegedly defamatory statements are not constitutionally protected.”
In the case, the plaintiff, a candidate for trustee for the village of Buffalo Grove, did not initially include the allegedly defamatory statement with the petition. Even if she had, the court found that the petition failed to allege facts to support the defamation claim. The appellate court found that the statement could be innocently construed and that it “lacks a readily understood and precise meaning that can be verified and contains no factual statement whatsoever.”
“Putting publishers and website hosts in the position of being a ‘cyber-nanny’ is a noxious concept that offends our country’s long history of protecting anonymous speech,” the court said.
Stone v. Paddock Publications, Inc., Ill. App. Court, 1st Dist. No. 1-09-3386.