Esys Latin America, Inc. v. Automattic, Inc.

Filing 1

COMPLAINT against Automattic, Inc.. Filing fee $ 350.00 receipt number 113C-3157690, filed by Esys Latin America, Inc..(Feldman, Bennett)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
MIAMI DIVISION

ESYS LATIN AMERICA, INC. and
ESYS TECHNOLOGIES Pte. LTD.

CIVIL ACTION
CASE NO.
JUDGE:

Plaintiffs,
MAGISTRATE:
vs.
AUTOMATTIC, INC.,
Defendant.
________________________________
COMPLAINT
The plaintiffs, eSys Latin America, Inc. and eSys Technologies Pte, Ltd. sue the defendant,
Automattic, Inc., for permanent injunction enjoining the defendant from publishing false, libelous
and defamatory statements and damages for libel, slander, defamation and business disparagement
in excess of $75,000 and allege:
PARTIES
1.

Plaintiff, eSys Latin America, Inc. is a Florida corporation with its principal place of

business in Miami Dade County, Florida.
2.

Plaintiff, eSys Technologies Pte, Ltd. is a private limited company, organized under

and subject to the laws of Singapore and conducts business in Florida through its affiliate eSys Latin
America, Inc.
3.

Defendant, Automattic, Inc., is a California corporation with offices in San Francisco,

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California and Registered Agent in Dover, Delaware.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
4.

The Court has jurisdiction over this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1332 as the matter

in controversy exceeds $75,000, and there is complete diversity of citizenship. This Court has
jurisdiction less than 28 U.S.C. 1367 as these claims for relief arise out of a common set of facts and
form part of the same case in controversy.
5.

Venue is proper in this district, pursuant to 28 USC1391(b)(2) in that a substantial

part of the events, acts or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred in the Southern District of
Florida and defendant committed direct acts against the Plaintiffs in the Southern District of Florida.
6.

Service of Process has been obtained over Automatic, Inc. pursuant to Florida

Statutes sec. 48.193(1)(b) for the defendants committing tortuous acts against the Plaintiffs in Florida
as hereinafter alleged.
FACTS
7.

Plaintiffs are in the business of purchasing and selling computer components to

customers worldwide. All of the sales and distribution for Esys Technologies Pte, Ltd’s in the
United States is conducted by its affiliated company, eSys Latin America, Inc. whose office is in
Miami Dade County, Florida. Any publication on the internet regarding eSys is directed against a
Florida corporation and was accessed and accessible in Florida.
8.

Defendant, Automattic, Inc., owns and operates an open source blog publishing

application on the internet under the name “WordPress.” WordPress is considered one of the most
popular blog software in use today. WordPress is an extremely sophisticated system for the posting
of blogs and indexing them for retrieval. Automattic/WordPress is not an internet service provider
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(ISP). It is a website (the URL for WordPress is “wordpress.com.”) maintained for representatives
of WordPress or others to publish commentary or news of a particular subject. Anyone can start a
blog on WordPress in seconds without any technical knowledge that is viewed worldwide and in
Florida.
9.

The blogs published by WordPress are either written by employees, agents or

representatives of WordPress or others using either false or fictitious identification making it
virtually impossible to identify the actual writer of the blog. Because of this anonymity, Defendant,
Automattic/WordPress is responsible for the defamatory publication. In addition, the Defendant has
a duty to use reasonable care in ascertaining that the contents of the blogs are not false or defamatory.
10.

On or about April 6, 2009, WordPress posted a blog entitled “Justice for Teledata

Investor’s Forum” with a sub title “this forum is about presenting 100% facts about the fraudulent
activities of promoters of Teledata and Esys.” (the “Teledata blog”). The Teledata blog published,
inter alia, statements that the eSys group of companies and their principals were engaged in
fraudulent activities and that certain websites were shut down because of the alleged fraud. The
statement further published:
“The website of the Esys Group and related companies were shut down since last
week when some of the investors reported that another big fraud has been found were
the promoters of Esys namely. [sic] Vikas Goel and Niraj Goel have listed a fake
company on the London Stock Exchange.”
11.

On or about August 17, 2009, WordPress posted a blog entitled “Vikas Goel

desperately inviting people to his new house in Dubai” and published the following statement: (the
“Dubai blog”)
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“Vikas Goel of fraud company Esys has recently been found in Singapore from his
hiding and desperately inviting people to see his house in Dubai. After doing frauds
of billions of dollors [sic] with Seagate and State Bank of India Vikas Goel was
found in Singapore boasting about his ill-gotten fortune by doing fraud with Seagate
and State Bank in India.”
****
“The investigation are [sic] on and more money laundering transactions have been
reported from far east which have been reported to the concerned authorities.”
12.

On or about April 30, 2009, WordPress posted a blog entitled “No Twisted fact all

real facts, etc. (the “”Esys Global” blog). The eSys Global blog posted published the following
statement:
“After a lot of hard work we have been able to find lots of evidence which cannot be
disputed by any sane person. It would be the first time in the corporate history of the
world where promoters of Teledata, Esys Singapore, tradelabs and Esys Global
Holdings Dubai are so blatantly committing corporate frauds which involves billions
of dollors [sic].”
13.

Each of the statements contained in the blogs published by Defendant, Automatic,

Inc. on its WordPress website are defamatory and contain serious false allegations against Esys
Latin America, Inc. and its officers and directors as well as employees and injuring its goodwill and
reputation.
14.

Each of the statements contained in the blogs published by Defendant, Automattic,

Inc. on its WordPress web site are defamatory and contain serious false allegations against Esys
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Technologies Pte. Ltd. and its officers and directors as well as employees and injuring its goodwill
and reputation.
15.

Each of the statements published by WordPress on its website is false and malicious

and made with the intent of willfully damaging the Plaintiffs.
16.

Plaintiffs gave Defendant, Automattic, Inc., notice that the statements published on

WordPress are false, defamatory and libelous. Defendant, Automattic, Inc. ignored all such notice;
failed to verify the accuracy of the information and knew that the information was, in fact, false,
libelous and defamatory.
17.

Defendant, Automattic, Inc. policy for WordPress regarding libel and defamation is

to do nothing. According to its website (http: //en.wordpress.com/abuse/), WordPress will suspend
blogs or blog posts only where there are personal threats and lies; calls for violence or impersonation
of a private person. WordPress “ . . . [W]ill not suspend blogs for other reasons you might find
objectionable.” (emphasis in original).
18.

The publication of each of the false and malicious statements about the Plaintiffs has

damaged the Plaintiffs.
19.

Each of the published statements alleging that the Plaintiffs engaged in criminal

conduct is actionable per se because the published statements impugn the Plaintiffs’ ability to do
business, and its methods of doing business.
20.

At all time, Defendant, Automattic, Inc./WordPress retained editorial control over

each of the above described statements and refused to remove the libelous and defamatory statements
from its webpage.
21.

The false and malicious statements have been published against the Plaintiffs, and
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the Plaintiffs’ principals, employees and representatives for the purpose of causing damages to the
Plaintiffs.
22.

Because of the continued publication of such false, defamatory and malicious

statements concerning the Plaintiffs, the Plaintiffs have been and will continue to be adversely
affected in the business world. Plaintiffs have suffered and will continue to suffer special damages
in that they have lost customers and sources of products from suppliers with whom they had
previously done business and had excellent business relationships.
23.

By posting the defamatory material on its website about a Florida resident, defendant,

Automatic/WordPress, has directed communications about a Florida resident to readers worldwide,
including potential and actual readers within Florida. The posting, when accessed by third parties,
is published in Florida and is a tortuous act of defamation within Florida.
24.

All conditions precedent have been performed, have occurred, or have been waived
COUNT I
ACTION FOR INJUNCTION

25.

Plaintiffs incorporate the allegations of paragraphs 1 through 24.

26.

Defendant, Automattic, Inc./WordPress, by the continued publication of false and

defamatory statements, has engaged in a deliberate plan to adversely affect and destroy the business
reputation of the Plaintiffs.
27.

Plaintiffs’ legal remedy against the continuous publication of the libelous and

defamatory blogs, is inadequate.
28.

Unless Automattic, Inc. is enjoined from continually publishing the false, libelous and

defamatory statements, Plaintiffs will suffer damages for which there is no adequate remedy at law

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Wherefore Plaintiffs pray that this court will take jurisdiction of this action and grant
Plaintiffs a permanent injunction to enjoin Defendant, Automattic, Inc. from publishing the above
described false libelous, defamatory and statements and any other false statements on its WordPress
website and award attorneys fees and costs of this action.
COUNT II
DEFAMATION PER SE
29.

Plaintiffs incorporate the allegations of paragraphs 1 through 28.

30.

The meanings of the defamatory publications are clear and unambiguous and affect

the credit, property and business reputation of the plaintiff and tend to prejudice the plaintiff in the
conduct of its trade and business and its dealing with third parties.
31.

By reason of the libel and defamation actions of Defendant, Automattic, Inc. the

plaintiffs have been damaged.
32.

In addition to the damages caused by the defendant’s libelous and defamatory per se

publications, plaintiffs have suffered exemplary and special damages. Defendants libel and
defamations have prevented the Plaintiff is securing products; affected its credit worthiness and
relationships with its shareholders, creditors and lenders. Damages include loss of business
relationships that could result in new business for its operations. the acts of Automattic have totuisly
interfered with these relationships in an attempt to harm Plaintiffs and Plaintiff’s business operation.
Wherefore plaintiffs demand judgment against the defendant, Automattic, Inc. for actual and
special damages, including costs, interest and attorneys fees.
COUNT III
DEFAMATION AND SLANDER
33.

Plaintiffs incorporate the allegations of paragraphs 1 through 32.
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34.

The Defendant, Automattic, Inc., published and continued to publish false statements

purporting to be facts about the Plaintiffs to third persons via its WordPress web site. No privilege,
absolute or condition attaches to these statements. Defendant’s false and defamatory statements
have caused damages suffered by the Plaintiffs.
Wherefore plaintiffs demand judgment against the defendant, Automattic, Inc. for actual and
special damages, including costs, interest and attorneys fees.
COUNT IV
BUSINESS DISPARAGEMENT
35.

Plaintiffs incorporate the allegations of paragraphs 1 through 34.

36.

The publication of the false, libelous and defamatory words about the Plaintiffs

economic interests has caused the Plaintiffs special damages, including but not limited to, loss of
business relationships that could result in new business for its operations, preventing the Plaintiff
in securing products; affecting its credit worthiness and its relationships with its shareholders,
creditors and lenders.
Wherefore plaintiffs demand judgment against the defendant, Automattic, Inc. for actual and
special damages, including costs, interest and attorneys fees
DEMAND FOR TRIAL BY JURY
37.

Plaintiffs demand trial by jury of all issues so triable.
s/Bennett G. Feldman
BENNETT G. FELDMAN (Fla.Bar No.024106)
Email address: [e-mail]
2655 Lejeune Road
Suite 514
Coral Gables, Fla. 33134
Tel. [phone]
Fax [phone]
Attorney for Plaintiffs
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