A trial court’s January 23, 2024 order dismissing a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” (a SLAPP-suit) filed by three City of Fayetteville Aldermen against two citizens who petitioned them is now final.  Although the Aldermen initially filed a Notice of Appeal after losing in the trial court, whether due to their belated realization that their lawsuit was hopeless or for some other reason, the Aldermen later moved to dismiss their own appeal.  On May 28, 2024, the Tennessee Court of Appeals partially granted the Aldermen’s motion.  The Court of Appeals’ partial dismissal order provides that two additional issues—(1) whether the Aldermen have to pay the victims of their SLAPP-suit for their attorney’s fees incurred on appeal, and (2) whether the Aldermen should be sanctioned for the suit itself—still remain in the case.

“The trial court’s ruling completely vindicated Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders, and the Aldermen’s decision to dismiss their own hopeless appeal only confirms how frivolous this litigation was all along,” said Horwitz Law, PLLC principal Daniel A. Horwitz, Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders’ lead counsel, who represented the Defendants alongside Horwitz Law, PLLC attorneys Lindsay Smith and Melissa Dix and their co-counsel at Raybin & Weissman P.C.  “Elected officials who are so thin-skinned that they feel the need to sue their own constituents for petitioning them have no business holding public office.”

The Aldermen’s lawsuit was filed on the ostensible basis that Fayetteville citizens Jon Law and Tina Sanders published the Aldermen’s cell phone numbers on Facebook.  Mr. Law posted the Aldermen’s cell phone numbers in connection with a campaign against a proposed 50% tax increase.  Ms. Sanders did so to encourage Fayetteville’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen to improve maintenance at a city park.  Afterward, three of the Aldermen whose cell phone numbers were published sued Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders for “invasion of privacy.”

In response to the Aldermen’s lawsuit, Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders petitioned to dismiss the Aldermen’s claims under the Tennessee Public Participation Act, Tennessee’s new anti-SLAPP statute.  Their petition observed, among other things, that publishing a person’s (particularly an elected official’s) cell phone number is not “highly offensive” to any reasonable person, and that elected officials’ contact information is of legitimate concern to the public.  Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders also observed that two of the Aldermen had published their own cell phone numbers on their public candidate nominating petitions, while the third had her cell phone number published without complaint by city officials.  Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders presented the Court with a declaration from the City of Fayetteville’s Mayor—Donna Hartman—attesting that the three Aldermen used their personal cell phones to conduct official city business, too.

Upon review, the Circuit Court for Lincoln County, Tennessee, ruled that Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders proved that the Aldermen’s legal action against them was “based on, relates to, or [was] in response to the Defendants’ right to petition.”  The Circuit Court further determined that “publishing someone’s cell phone number in the context of this case is not highly offensive to any reasonable person given that the Plaintiffs in this case have themselves published and disseminated their cell phone numbers publicly.”  The Court held that “Defendants have established a valid defense to liability under the First Amendment” as well.

Mr. Law and Mr. Sanders’ win followed a string of earlier TPPA victories against defamation and other speech-based tort claims filed by politicians.  In July 2023, for example, failed Tennessee House Candidate Michelle Foreman saw her SLAPP-suit against Horwitz Law, PLLC Client Dave Rosenberg dismissed.  Ms. Foreman was ultimately sanctioned $100,000.00.  Before that, in December 2022, conservative commentator and Horwitz Law, PLLC client Candace Owens prevailed in a $20 million SLAPP-suit filed by failed congressional candidate Kim Klacik, who was ordered to pay Ms. Owens $115,000.00 in attorney’s fees.  Other comparatively powerful officials—including a billionaire developer in Chattanooga and a disgraced Williamson County attorney —have recently filed SLAPP-suits against their critics, too.

Selected case documents from Mr. Law and Ms. Sanders’ win are linked below.

Case Documents:

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Horwitz Law, PLLC has successfully defended clients against multiple multimillion-dollar libel, slander, false light, and other speech-based lawsuits in Tennessee’s state and federal courts. Clients represented by Horwitz Law have avoided tens of millions of dollars’ worth of threatened liability and frequently recovered some or all of their attorney’s fees against the people who baselessly sued them. If you are seeking speech defense, anti-SLAPP, or First Amendment representation, you can purchase a consultation from Horwitz Law here.