Shy v. Dylan [1]

On June 17, 2008, Barry Shy, a Los Angeles real estate developer, and his development company, 5th St Loft, sued Jessica Jordan and Alan Dylan, who reside in a building developed by Shy and allegedly run the website Truedowntown [2], the "unofficial" site for the Shybary Grand Loft in Los Angeles.  The lawsuit [3] claims that Jordan and Dylan libeled Shy and damaged his businesses by making disparaging comments about him.

Jordan and Dylan are both owners of units in the SB Grand, a prominent development in downtown Los Angeles.  Jordan also runs the website  Truedowntown [2], which she created to "inspire positive change at the Shybary Grand by identifying issues that need to be dealt with by the board and management company, especially if those issues have ignored California Law." (The suit claims that Dylan also is connected with the website, but Jordan has stated [4] that is incorrect).

According to plaintiffs' complaint [3], Jordan and Dylan made the following disparaging statements about Shy:

a) Barry Shy is a criminal
b) Barry Shy is a "slum lord"
c) Barry Shy is "dishonest" and only cares about "making a profit"
d) "Do Not Buy or Rent from Barry Shy you will regret it"
e) Barry Shy has broken Federal Laws
f) Barry Shy is a horrible business man with no principals

Although the complaint does not identify where the statements appeared, Blogdowntown [5], a site that describes itself as a "central point for news and discussion of Downtown Los Angeles," noted that all of the statements were drawn from comments on that site's March of 2006 story about Shy's purchase of buildings in Los Angeles' historic core [6].  Some of these statements were posted psuedonymously, which likely explains why Shy also named "Does 1-100" as defendants in the suit.

Update:

A case management conference has been schedule for 11/04/2008 at 08:45 am in department 28 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.