Smith Enterprises sues customer over interwebz comments

Auggie Doggie

Auggie Doggie

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Saw this on another forum.

h ttp://m14forum.com/m14/145566-i-need-lawyer-served-sei-lawsuit-today.html

I guess one cannot criticize a product without some personal risk these days. Wonder how it will play out.
(not sure if it's ok to hot link this or not.)

Auggie D.
 
I haven't read the 34 pages yet, but it seems over the top for a company to go after an internet poster like this.

OTOH, I suspect that a lot of people don't realize that comments made on the internet fall under the same laws as any other medium - so don't go saying libellous things, for example. For such things, there is no protection from freedom of expression rights, nor should there be.

In this case, I expect the blow back from web communities might hurt the company far more than the negative comments.
 
Thats total crap, if I say on a forum that I hate Nesquick Chocolate mix because I think it tastes like salmon poop, I'm eligible to be sued by Nestle for libel? Come on...
 
Given what's about to happen to SEI's sales, I don't think we'll need to worry about this ever happening again - that forum has the vast majority of serious M14 guys in the M14's largest, and only unregulated, market.
 
It's going to come down to opinion vs implied fact. I'd like to know what was said that's deemed to be so damaging. Does this guy have some pull in the community or something?
 
DOA357 said:
It's going to come down to opinion vs implied fact. I'd like to know what was said that's deemed to be so damaging. Does this guy have some pull in the community or something?
Click to expand...

Pretty much along the lines of he heard something from a 'reliable source' about heat treatment issues as a reason for SEI's delay in receiver shipments to some vendor called 'Crocs'. I only remember bits and pieces of the original thread that spiraled into the mess it is now, but I don't remember hammond actually slandering SEI. SEI pretty well just shot themselves in the foot judging from the reactions so far. Surprised it took this long for it to end up here.
 
mikethebike said:
Thats total crap, if I say on a forum that I hate Nesquick Chocolate mix because I think it tastes like salmon poop, I'm eligible to be sued by Nestle for libel? Come on...
Click to expand...

No, but if you said it had banned toxins in it that caused you an illness and loss of income and it wasn't true you would be liable under Defamation laws....so be careful what you type!
Just because its on a forum doesn't keep you above the laws of the land.
 
Actually you can sue for anything. Whether you are successful or not would depend on what was said and whether you can convince a court that damage was done to your reputation. This case seems to be frivolous and meant to punish the poster without any real expectation of a positive judgment.
There are lots of shady folks and companies right here in Canada (some in the firearms industry) that do the same thing. It really does cool off the negative comments but many consumers view this type of lame lawsuit negatively so in the end the result is often the same, the company trying to quiet negative comments gets a bad reputation anyway.
 
If you do some research.... The company in question has a long history of sicking it's lawyers on folks. There's a guy from BC that used to manufacture stuff several years back that is probably still feeling the sting. I think a business I deal with regularly, well know on this site, has also had to deal with and fend off the SEI legal team.
Oh well, more fodder for the drama machine LOL
 
If the reliable source is proven to exhist and hammond acted on his belief that his reliable source's info was vetted and true... He "might" dodge a bullet hehehehe
But does indeed look like he's gonna need to pay a lawyer's salary and that not good even if he beats it.
 
Except that in the claim filed by SEI, Hammond is quoted as admitting his initial stayement was just speculation and conjecture...something he did not disclose in his original statement.
 
Yup, word to the wise, don't screw with R. Smith hehehe

If memory serves, he used to have a list of successful lawsuits right on his site
Will be interesting to see how this plays out
 
That thread has gone nuts. Personally I don't see the defendant as having said anything wrong. He never criticized the product only offered a possible explanation for delays. SEI could have responded by saying that delays were due to some other reason. I can't imagine this going well for SEI in the big picture.
 
after reading the court injunction, hammonds appears to have shot his own foot. SEI made multiple attempts to reconcile with him before suing, but hammonds stuck to his guns about a rumor of heat treatment issues and now has to pay the piper
 
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