Bellavia Blatt & Crossett, P.C. v. Kel & Partners, LLC

Bellavia Blatt & Crossett P.C. (Bellavia) (plaintiff) was a law firm that represented automobile and marine dealerships. TrueCar Inc. assisted consumers in purchasing automobiles. TrueCar retained Kel & Partners LLC (Kel) (defendant), managed by Kel Kelly (defendant), to provide public-relations services. Bellavia sued TrueCar on behalf of Bellavia’s automotive-dealership clients for false advertising and unfair competition. An industry publication published an article about the lawsuit and invited readers who had “an opinion” about the story to submit a letter to the editor or an online comment. Kelly posted a comment stating it was “sadly becoming true that to be genuinely successful in modern business you must, at some point, become the target of fraudulent litigation,” “[t]he law firm behind this suit has a reputation for making a living by opportunistically attempting to sue others,” “[w]ord of the street is they have been attempting to induce dealers to join this lawsuit for quite some time with the misleading promise of millions in reward,” and “what is being whispered throughout the auto industry is that participating dealers must pay thousands of dollars to participate, and the claims are just a fishing exercise.” Another contributor posted: “[I]n my opinion, you are spot on.” Bellavia sued Kel and Kelly, alleging that Kelly’s comment defamed Bellavia. Kel and Kelly moved for summary judgment, arguing that the posted comment was a protected statement of opinion.