Allegheney Energy v. Doe [1]

Allegheney Energy ("AE") sued a John Doe who posted anonymous criticism of the company that included racial epithets on a Yahoo! Finance forum dedicated to AE.  Because the anonymous author included statements in his posts indicating that he was a long-time AE employee, AE claimed  breach of fiduciary duty and breach of duty of loyalty in its filing in Pennsylvania state court.

After filing the suit on October 16, 2003, AE subpoenaed Yahoo! to reveal Doe's identity. Yahoo! sent notification of its receipt of the subpoena to Doe, whose real name turned out to be Cliff Swiger, and revealed Swiger's identity to AE.  Swiger claimed he never received the notification.  On November 25, AE filed a motion to dismiss the suit against John Doe (Swiger).

AE subsequently fired Swiger for his postings on the Yahoo! forum. Swiger then filed a lawsuit against AE for abuse of process, wrongful use of civil [2] proceedings, intrusion of seclusion, and publication of private facts. See Allegheney Energy v. Swiger [3] for more information.