Abshire v. Pearl [1]

Dale Abshire filed a lawsuit in a Texas state court against David Pearl after Pearl posted a series of allegedly defamatory responses on the Yahoo! Finance AXA Internet message board [2] in response to Abshire's posts. According to the appellate decision in the case [3], Pearl's post cited sexual harassment as a reason for Abshire's termination from his previous employment.

Pearl moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the court had no personal jurisdiction over him because he resided in New York and had no ties with Texas other than mentioning it in his message board posting.  The trial court denied the motion, and Pearl appealed.

A Texas appellate court reversed [4] the lower court decision and dismissed the case, ruling that Pearl had not "purposefully availed" himself of the privilege of conducting activities in Texas. Rather, the court found that "Pearl's internet connections with Texas were in fortuitous in response to the postings of a Texas resident, Abshire."