McGeorge Camping Center v. Affinity Group [1]

Recreational vehicle dealership McGeorge Camping Center ("McGeorge") sued Affinity Group ("Affinity"), operator of the RV.Net Open Roads Forum [2], and several posters to the forum. The case revolves around statements accusing certain commenters who made positive statements [3] about McGeorge of being employees or paid agents of the dealership. In its lawsuit filed in Virginia state court, McGeorge claimed that Affinity and the forum posters defamed it and engaged in a civil conspiracy to harm its reputation, trade, or business. 

Affinity removed the case to federal court and moved to dismiss [4] the case for failure to state a claim. It argued that it was protected from liability for third party comments on the forum under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act [5] ("CDA 230"). It argued also that McGeorge had failed to establish a valid defamation claim based on the posters' comments. One of the posters to the forum, James Hurdle, answered [6] the complaint and moved for judgement on the pleadings [7], arguing that McGeorge had failed to state a claim against him.

Before the district court ruled on these motions, McGeorge moved to remand [8] the case back to state court, arguing that, because Hurdle was a Virginia citizen, his presence among the defendants destroyed the diversity of citizenship necessary to give the federal court subject-matter jurisdiction. The court agreed and remanded [9] the case to state court.