So, I'm gonna be sued...

The BBQ Pit
1

The other downer story from an otherwise great weekend (the first is the **Damned Semi **), is that an acquaintance of mine claims he is going to file a civil suit against me for being a porn spammer.

To start the long story, I joined a model railroad club soon after I came to Virginia, and Nutjob joined soon after me. At first, he seemed like a real good guy. Yet there were early signs of something wrong. As the election heated up, Nutjob baited the club president into a public verbal battle over political views.

He accused another member of being unbalanced, and trying to run the club to his liking when he wasn’t an officer.

Nutjob took on the (thankless) job of Electrical Chairman, and quit 2 months later in a very public hissy fit.

Nutjob accused a couple other members of theft and vandalism.

At this point, the rest of the club membership presumes he has a screw loose, and members begin to distance themselves from Nutjob. I need to interject here that based on my original incorrect assessment of Nutjob as being cool, I added him to a private e-mail list of club members for the purpose of passing around tasteless humor.

In January, I get a demand from Nutjob, as a reply to a run of the mill tasteless joke 2 weeks previous, that I stop spamming him with pornography immediately, or he’ll file suit against me. Of course, other mail has backed up in his mailbox. Nutjob opens the next email from me, also dated, and goes berserk again.

I’m a reasonable guy, and if someone sent me a note saying ‘I don’t like that stuff, please stop sending it’, I’d comply immediately. Nutjob didn’t do that. He starts trying to raise a lot of shit with my ISP, and I replied to him that while I took him off my list, he has until the following Friday to send me the process servers, or he can go pound sand. A very public flame war resulted on our club mail list over that, and it finally settled down a week later.

I’ve done my best until now to ignore Nutjob.

While I was gone to Indiana this past weekend, Nutjob had another hissy fit over e-mail, and is now on his civil suit high horse. He’s going to sue me for being a porn spammer. The only problem is that I haven’t sent him anything since the January fight. Nor has he threatened me in person, yet; he’s been going off on the club president about me. I guess he figured out the first time that I won’t be cowed.

I think my 17 y. o. son could successfully defeat this in court.

  • It’s not spam, because I don’t get advertising revenue, nor do I try to obscure the sending address;

  • I can concede that some might be offended by tasteless humor, but he needs a big cup of ‘grow up’, with an extra big cup of ‘shut the fuck up’;

  • I took reasonable measures the first time to make sure he wasn’t bothered by my mail;

  • He needs to learn how to read a mail header, so he can accuse the right person.

We’ll see how serious he is about the suit when I have the matter of his expulsion from the club voted on at the next meeting. It might be petty, but he’s stirred up enough shit with the other members that I can probably prevail. I’m not going to take this lying down.

2

No lawyer woudl take this on a % or 'spec", and I doubt if he’d want to pony up the $1000 to $5000 most lawyers would ask as a retainer.

I’ll bet a nickel he won’t sue. Raise stink, sure- but a suit would cost too much, and he has nothing to gain. All he’s trying to do is get you scared and angry, and it looks like he may have succeded. :frowning:

3

Well, that’s why my attitude then and now both is So Sue Me.

The threat his prerogative. I have a few of my own.

4

While I am on your side because this guy sounds like a tool, your definition of spam is incorrect. Spam is any unsolicited email, regardless of adevertising intent, revenue gained, etc. only if the person does not somehow implicitly or explicitly ask you to email them. However, in this case of course he has, by giving you his email, presumably for personal emails of which your emails are. Just thought I’d help clarify the nature of spam emails.

5

IANAL, etc. but you should probably refrain from posting anything more about this situation or discussing it with anyone other than your attorney. This thread is discoverable, as is anything you tell to other people IRL. If a suit is filed and you’re deposed, things you say in this thread or IRL could come back to bite you in the ass.

Sure the suit may be baseless and the guy may not ever follow through, but why give anyone free ammunition?

6

So Bob which of the many many lawfirms down here offering to take any case to court is he using?

7

Go get 'em Bob! This guy sounds like the Mother of All Nutjobs. The sooner the group’s rid of him the better. Of course, since you mentioned hissy fit, I’m dying to know all about that! We need Nutjob stories! You should know by now you cannot say hissy fit without relaying the whole sordid story.

BTW, if what you sent him is the stuff you send me, he could sue you for a new monitor. :smiley:

8

VunderBob, I’ve got two words for you, and the 2nd one is “Judy.” I strongly urge you to get this case on the air, because I would love to see you publicly take down this pathetic excuse for a slime puddle.

9

IMAO, the only place he has a prayer of a chance of getting into a courtroom is small claims court, assuming he truly wants to go there. I’d relish transfering to Judy or Joe Brown, because I’m sure I’d have to answer 2-3 questions, and stand bag while Nutjob hangs himself in public.

Swampy, he was getting the same type of stuf that I send you.

10

In that case, I’m suing you for a new monitor and possibly a new desk chair cause I’ve about fallen out of mine a few times laughing. :smiley:

Judge Judy sounds like a great idea! What with all of us dopers that would watch, we’d send her ratings through the roof!

11

What a moron. I’m sure once he finds about about the legal costs of such a stupid suit, he’ll stop dead in his tracks. I love Judy Judy, so here’s one more vote to him there.

12

Like the name Nutjob, that’s a dead giveaway.

13

Offer him a pound of trucker butt, maybe he’ll settle.

14

That’s what I was thinkin’ Octopus, that’s what I was thinkin’.

15

I hate Judge Judy, so here’s one more vote to take him there.

Daniel

16

But…but…she has has NY 'tude, how can you not love her?

17

Anyone who takes politics into a fucking model railroad club has to have mental problems. Reminds me of LSU’s flag football club where most teams were there dicking around, probably half drunk or hungover, yet they always had a team of “those guys” that showed up with memorized playbooks and scowls on their faces. My recommendation is to headbutt this guy in the tit and get on with your life, as I garuntee he won’t go through with this suit (except maybe for the headbutt).

18

Hey, this reminds me, Vunderbob, did you ever actually include a “Nastishiti Chemical Corporation” in your model railroad?

I promise I won’t sue.

More on-topic, I doubt you have anything to fear in the way of actual legal hassles – the guy is clearly delusional.

And this would make for great entertainment on a Judge Judy-type show. If you could manage that, it would be a scream.

I’m sure that the producers would snap it up. Model Railroad Club + Alleged Porn Spam = Comedy gold. Especially if the litigant is deadly serious. Bwahahahaha. He’s begging for it.

19

I wouldn’t go on Judge Judy. Her morality-preaching + unfamiliarity with the internet sounds not-good for your case.

20

Wow, I had no idea the world of model railroading was so complicated.