Apartment management firm sues tenant for criticizing it

As right-wingers yelp mammothly about individuals filing too many suits against corporations, there's actually a pandemic of the exact opposite.

In Chicago, an apartment management company is suing a former tenant for $50,000 because she dared to criticize it using her Twitter account.

We call this a SLAPP suit - one designed to censor criticism.

One may notice that the management firm's name is followed with the initials LLC - which stands for limited liability company. Though not legally a full-fledged corporation, it is a semicorporate entity - not an individual. Indeed, the very concept of an LLC was created in an attempt to give rights to what would otherwise be corporations.

Thus, the management firm is not a person. A corporate or semicorporate entity cannot suffer feewinghurt.

The long and short of it is, the company has no case.

Once in the '90s, one corporation (in the form of a newspaper) criticized another, was sued for "defamation", and lost. Both companies were right-wing, so the general feeling was that neither deserved to win. However, in hindsight, I know that the company that sued had no case.

If we keep allowing SLAPP suits by faceless companies, the effect on the free flow of ideas will be disastrous. Corporations and similar constructs simply are not supposed to be accorded the same rights as individuals. It's time we get that clear.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/news/national/story/Chicago-apartment-group-claims-defamation-by-Tweet/mwuOz6q_Sk2q97zvD2dJRA.cspx)