Twitter Libel suit dismissed...and thus more attorneys are now out of work.

The defendant in the case had tweeted "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment is bad for you?  Horizon realty thinks its ok."  Before analyzing the legal side of this, let me demonstrate how this phrase should have been correctly tweeted.  The correct way to tweet this would be to say "WSSIAMAWB4U?  Horreal sayOK"

20 cheese points to the comment that comes up with a better way to tweet it.  I will be the sole judge of what is "better" and yes of course I am biased. 

Now onto the legal side of things.

First remember that this was the company that reportedly said they would sue first and ask questions later.  Never a good PR move.  According to FindLaw, the court ruled that the plaintiff, Horizon Group, could not form all of the elements of libel.  

The elements are:
1.  The comment be made about the plaintiff specifically.  The court ruled that Hroizon was not able to prove this because the word "Horizon" was too vague.
2.  The comment must be false and defammatory.  The court found that Horizon was not able to prove that the statement was false, because the defendant may very well have been lving in a moldy apartment.
3.  The comment must be published.  This element was met because it was tweeted.
4.  The plaintiff must show actual damage.  It is unlikely, according to the article that Horizon would have been able to prove the damage element.

Therefore, the court dismissed.  And good for them.  Afterall, if you can't bitch and gripe via Twitter, then why sign up for it to begin with?  (I know I know there are many good things about Twitter like checking on BFC tweets...if I ever updated it).