Exam
Test your knowledge of equine law. by Attorney Krysia Nelson
Could You Be Sued For Things You Say On Social Media?
Case #1: The defamatory “tweet.” A horse owner arranged to have a horse dealer ship her Thoroughbred gelding to a horse farm in New Jersey where he was to be a companion horse. She later learned that the horse instead ended up at a horse auction in New Holland, Pennsylvania, and may have subsequently been shipped to Canada and slaughtered. The horse’s fate became a “topic of great debate on Internet sites dealing with Thor- oughbred race horses.” One of the participants in this online discussion posted on her Twitter ac- count, naming the horse owner by name “you are f***ing crazy!” [Editor’s note: expletive not censored in original Tweet] The horse owner sued, claiming that her professional career is “dependent on the public review and endorsement of her publica-
Equine Litigation Consulting Certified Equine Appraisals Expert Witness
tions. Peers, professors, prospective employers and interested parties find her work by searching the In- ternet for her name. [The] tweet can be found by searching for [her] name with Internet search engines.” The horse owner contended that the tweet, standing alone, is “an unexplained indictment of [my]
sanity.” The commentator who posted the Tweet contended that her tweet was “an expression of opinion and hyperbole” and not actionable.
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Case #2: The defamatory Facebook post. A New Jersey woman filed suit in a federal court in New York after placing two horses with a rescue group. According to the court, the woman had rescued two horses from imminent slaughter. During their period of rehabilitation, the horses “bonded” to the point they could not be separated from one another. Eventually, the woman arranged for the two horses to be placed with a rescue group, who allegedly agreed not only to care for them and keep them together, but to return both horses to the woman if circumstances ever arose that would require their separation. According to the lawsuit filed by the woman, she learned that the rescue group had separated the horses, causing one of the horses to become depressed and ill. Accord- ing to the woman, the rescued group wanted the sick and depressed horse to die in order to unencumber the other horse from its “bonded companion.” The woman sought return of the horses, and although the rescue group initially agreed, it later reneged and refused to return the horses to the woman. In the course of this dispute, various individuals made comments on the rescue group’s Facebook page which the woman felt sug- gested she had committed acts of animal cruelty and failed to properly care for the horses before relinquishing custody to the rescue group. Believ- ing these comments impugned her character and constituted “libel per se,” she filed suit against not only the rescue group but against the Facebook commentators as well.
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