Digital Media Law Project
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Home > First Cash Financial Services v. Doe

First Cash Financial Services v. Doe [1]

Submitted by DMLP Staff on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 16:57

Summary

Threat Type: 

Lawsuit

Date: 

08/19/2002

Status: 

Concluded

Disposition: 

Subpoena Enforced

Location: 

California, Texas

Verdict or Settlement Amount: 

N/A

Legal Claims: 

Breach of Contract
First Cash Financial Services, a Texas-based company operating a chain of pawn shops and cash checking services, sued a John Doe defendant in Texas state court.  The complaint alleged breach of contract arsing out of critical statements about the firm's... read full description
Parties

Party Receiving Legal Threat: 

John Doe, aka knowfcfs

Type of Party: 

Organization

Type of Party: 

Individual

Location of Party: 

  • Texas

Legal Counsel: 

Roger Yang - Matheny Sears Linkert & Jaime

Legal Counsel: 

Mark Goldowitz - California Anti-SLAPP Project; Cindy A. Cohn - Electronic Frontier Foundation
Description

First Cash Financial Services, a Texas-based company operating a chain of pawn shops and cash checking services, sued a John Doe defendant [2] in Texas state court.  The complaint alleged breach of contract arsing out of critical statements about the firm's accounting practices posted to Fast Cash's Yahoo! Finance message board [2]. 

After obtaining permission of the Texas court, First Cash asked a California state court to issue a subpoena requiring Yahoo to provide identifying information for the anonymous poster.  A clerk of the court issued the subpoena, and the anonymous poster filed a special motion to strike the action (including the subpoena) under California's anti-SLAPP statute [3].  According to EFF [4], the California court denied the motion to strike, presumably allowing the subpoena to be enforced.

The CMLP was not able to find any information about what happened to the case upon its return to Texas state court. 

Related Links: 

  • CyberSLAPP.org: [5]First Cash v. John Doe [5]
  • EFF: First Cash v. John Doe [4]
  • CMLP: First Cash Financial Services v. Yahoo! Inc. [6]
Details

Web Site(s) Involved: 

Yahoo! Finance: FCFS
[2]

Content Type: 

  • Text

Publication Medium: 

Forum

Subject Area: 

  • SLAPP
  • Anonymity
  • Business Torts
  • Subpoenas
  • User Comments or Submissions
Court Information & Documents

Jurisdiction: 

  • California
  • Texas

Source of Law: 

  • California
  • Texas

Court Name: 

Tarrant County (Texas) District Court; Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County

Court Type: 

State

Case Number: 

No. 96 19455202 (Texas); 1-03-CV-002135 (California)

Relevant Documents: 

PDF icon 2003-09-04-Opening SLAPP Brief.pdf [7]
PDF icon 2003-10-29-Motion to File Under Seal.pdf [8]
PDF icon 2003-11-14-Declaration of Defendant.pdf [9]
PDF icon 2003-11-14-Declaration of Paul Clifford in Support of Motion to Strike.pdf [10]
PDF icon 2003-11-14-Doe Reply Brief in Support of Motion to File Under Seal.pdf [11]
PDF icon 2003-11-14-Doe Reply Memo in Support of Special Motion to Strike.pdf [12]
CMLP Information (Private)

Priority: 

1-High

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Source URL (modified on 08/20/2014 - 11:05pm): https://www.dmlp.org/threats/first-cash-financial-services-v-doe

Links
[1] https://www.dmlp.org/threats/first-cash-financial-services-v-doe
[2] http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/FCFS
[3] http://www.casp.net/statutes/cal425.html
[4] http://www.eff.org/cases/first-cash-v-john-doe
[5] http://www.cyberslapp.org/cases/page.cfm?pageID=30
[6] https://www.dmlp.org/threats/first-cash-financial-services-v-yahoo-inc
[7] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2003-09-04-Opening%20SLAPP%20Brief.pdf
[8] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2003-10-29-Motion%20to%20File%20Under%20Seal.pdf
[9] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2003-11-14-Declaration%20of%20Defendant.pdf
[10] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2003-11-14-Declaration%20of%20Paul%20Clifford%20in%20Support%20of%20Motion%20to%20Strike.pdf
[11] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2003-11-14-Doe%20Reply%20Brief%20in%20Support%20of%20Motion%20to%20File%20Under%20Seal.pdf
[12] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2003-11-14-Doe%20Reply%20Memo%20in%20Support%20of%20Special%20Motion%20to%20Strike.pdf