Blogger Beware: The “Johnny Northside” case
05/29/2012 | Author Jill V
The Minnesota Court of Appeals is hearing an interesting case involving blogging and free speech. Blogger John (“Johnny Northside”) Hoff wrote a post on his locally popular blog that resulted in Jerry Moore being fired from his job. See the Star Tribune Article , 2012 WLNR 11034738.
According to the Star Tribune story, Jerry Moore had been involved in a local community council and later was hired by the University of Minnesota to study mortgage foreclosures. Hoff alleged on his website that Moore had been involved in mortgage fraud, and questioned why the University would hire him. A commenter (previously another defendant who later settled) called for Moore’s termination. The story states that Moore was fired by the University soon after the post appeared.
Moore sued Hoff in 2009 for defamation, intentional interference with employment contract, and interference with prospective advantage. His amended complaint can be found on Westlaw at 2009 WL 8181963
At trial, the jury found that while the post was truthful, Hoff interfered with Moore’s employment contract and awarded Moore $35,000 for loss of benefits of his employment contract and $25,000 for emotional distress or harm to reputation. A jury verdict summary can be found at: 2011 WL 3622928
Hoff appealed and oral arguments occurred on May 23rd. Hoff argues that his blog post is protected by the 1st Amendment, but the question is whether speech encouraging termination of an individual’s employment goes beyond the protections of the 1st Amendment. The Court of Appeals docket can be found on Westlaw Classic or WestlawNext, with the docket number: A111923
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Case Law Search: While this story is centered around free speech and defamation issues, the better strategy for researching similar cases might be to begin by searching the tort of wrongful interference with an employment relationship. The relevant KeyNumber is 231HIX. Try,
Query: 231HIX /p libel slander defam!
Results: 88 (all case law jurisdictions)
Or, simply combine the two relevant KeyNumbers into a single search. Topic 237 is Libel and Slander:
Query: to(231HIX) and to(237)
Results: 434 (all case law jurisdictions)
Locate: to(231hix) (237) /p truth!
Results: 119 of 434
2 Responses to “Blogger Beware: The “Johnny Northside” case”
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New post: Blogger Beware: The “Johnny Northside” case http://t.co/MkEhBOTt #Free_Speech
I, Johnny northside, won my case on appeal. If this was a case of “blogger beware,” well, blogger don’t be so wary. Truth prevailed. Truth is a defense to defamation and, as it turns out, to tortious interference with contract or prospective advantage as long as all you did was tell the truth.