Loan Center of California v. Krowne (Email) [1]

Krowne operates The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter (ml-implode.com, mortgageimplode.com), a Web site that posts information about mortgage lending companies that have gone out of business or are expected to go out of business. On April 18, 2007, Krowne posted an e-mail from an anonymous source claiming to be a recently-laid-off employee of mortgage lender Loan Center of California (“LCC”). The e-mail stated that LCC was shutting down and that only a “skeleton crew” of employees remained to “clean up the mess.” It also accused LCC of fraud and various other improper business activities.

According to Krowne's case filings, LCC attorney Michael Huber contacted him within hours of the e-mail's posting. Krowne says he was threatened with a lawsuit, and thus chose to remove the e-mail and all mention of LCC from his site. LCC filed suit nonetheless, bringing claims of defamation, unfair business practices, and interference with contract. (Please see the CMLP's Database entry [2] for the related Loan Center v. Krowne lawsuit.)