Digital Media Law Project
Published on Digital Media Law Project (https://www.dmlp.org)

Home > Davis v. Google

Davis v. Google [1]

Submitted by DMLP Staff on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 12:48

Summary

Threat Type: 

Lawsuit

Date: 

04/09/2009

Status: 

Pending

Location: 

Illinois

Verdict or Settlement Amount: 

N/A

Legal Claims: 

Defamation
Cherie Davis, mother of 2006 gold medal winner Shani Davis, the first African American speed skater to make the U.S. Olympic team, sued Google, Inc. in Illinois state court, seeking an injunction requiring the company to take down a blog post written... read full description
Parties

Party Receiving Legal Threat: 

Google, Inc.

Type of Party: 

Individual

Type of Party: 

Large Organization
Intermediary

Location of Party: 

  • Illinois

Location of Party: 

  • California
  • Illinois
  • Delaware

Legal Counsel: 

Kurt J. Kolar

Legal Counsel: 

Perkins Coie LLC
Description

Cherie Davis, mother of 2006 gold medal winner Shani Davis, the first African American speed skater to make the U.S. Olympic team, sued Google, Inc. in Illinois state court, seeking an injunction requiring the company to take down a blog post written by deceased sports blogger Sean Healy.

Healy published the disputed post [2] in 2006 on his blog, Unknown Column [3], which is hosted on Google's Blogger [4] service.  In the post, Healy repeated the claim, reported at the time by some mainstream media outlets, including The Associated Press and Chicago Tribune, that Cherie Davis had accused the U.S. Speedskating Federation of racism. (These reports are no longer available online, but The Age [5], an Australian news outlet, is still carrying a similar story.)  Healy subsequently died of cancer in 2007.  

In her complaint [6], Davis alleges that Healy's post was false and defamatory, that she cannot bring a lawsuit for damages against Healy because of his death and apparent lack of a probate estate, and that Google "would not be prejudiced by an order enjoining it from continuing to post Healy's statement on Healy's blog, as [Google] has no interest, economic or otherwise, in continuing to post Healy's statement."  Davis seeks an injunction requiring Google to take down Healy's post, as well as payment of legal expenses.

Related Links: 

  • Internet Defamation Law Blog: Deceased Blogger’s Post Continues to Haunt Defamation Plaintiff [7]
  • MediaPost: Google Sued For Blogger's Criticism of Skater's Mom [8]
  • The Register: Olympic champ's mom sues Google for dead blogger's post [9]
  • Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Blogspot Sued for Dead Blogger's Content [10]
  • The Age: Davis does it his way to capture historic gold medal [5]
  • Unknown Column: Memo to Cherie Davis [2] (the disputed post)
  • CMLP: Speed Skater's Mom Sues Google Over Dead Blogger's Post [11]
Details

Web Site(s) Involved: 

Unknown Column [3]

Content Type: 

  • Text

Publication Medium: 

Blog

Subject Area: 

  • Defamation
  • Third-Party Content
  • Section 230
Court Information & Documents

Jurisdiction: 

  • Illinois

Source of Law: 

  • United States
  • Illinois

Court Name: 

Circuit Court for Cook County, Illinois

Court Type: 

State

Case Number: 

09CH15753

Relevant Documents: 

PDF icon 2009-04-09-Davis v. Google Complaint.pdf [12]
CMLP Information (Private)

Priority: 

1-High

Threat Source: 

Blog Post

CMLP Notes: 

JS EDITING: 7/5/11 

 

Source: Eric Goldman; MediaPost

 

KAI 6/5/09

DMLP Logo


Source URL (modified on 08/20/2014 - 11:09pm): https://www.dmlp.org/threats/davis-v-google

Links
[1] https://www.dmlp.org/threats/davis-v-google
[2] http://unknowncolumn.blogspot.com/2006/02/memo-to-cherie-davis.html
[3] http://unknowncolumn.blogspot.com/
[4] http://www.blogger.com/home
[5] http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/davis-does-it-his-way-to-capture-historic-gold-medal/2006/02/19/1140283948849.html
[6] url:%20http://www.citmedialaw.org/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-04-09-Davis%20v.%20Google%20Complaint.pdf
[7] http://www.internetdefamationlawblog.com/2009/04/deceased-bloggers-post-continues-to-haunt-defamation-plaintiff.html
[8] http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=104008
[9] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/15/mom_sues_google/
[10] http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2009/04/blogspot_sued_f.htm
[11] https://www.dmlp.org/blog/2009/speed-skaters-mom-sues-google-over-dead-bloggers-post
[12] https://www.dmlp.org/sites/dmlp.org/files/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-04-09-Davis%20v.%20Google%20Complaint.pdf