7th Circuit Court Opinion on e360 v Spamhaus


Hot off the press, courtesy of the excellent legal document site SpamSuite.com. Mickey Chandler breaks it down:
  • The default judgment stays (e360: 1, Spamhaus 0)
  • The money judgment is overturned (e360: 1, Spamhaus: 11,715,000)
  • The injunction is overturned (e360: 1, Spamhaus: 11,715,001)

Important bits: Page 12: "We perceive no error in the district court’s conclusion that Spamhaus intentionally elected to abandon its available defenses when it withdrew those defenses from consideration by the court and indicated that it was prepared to accept a default. Spamhaus’ then-counsel confirmed that it wished to “participate in the defense no further” and “do absolutely nothing.” See R.56-1 at 3, 5. It was not erroneous to treat this kind of voluntary abandonment of defenses, raised but not pursued, as a waiver."

Pgs 18-19: "Mr. Linhardt’s affidavit is a conclusory statement of the lost value of his business, based largely on his calculations of lost future profits. It provides a list of businesses involved in “actual and pending contracts” and a total calculation of his calculation of loss, but says nothing about the status of his relationship with those businesses before e360 was listed on the ROKSO. That is, the affidavit claims profit loss in absolute numbers, but provides no information whatsoever to support a finding that such future profits were certain prior to Spamhaus’ act. Particularly given the difficulties that Illinois courts have acknowledged in proving non-speculative amounts of lost future profits, [citations omitted], this affidavit alone cannot provide the requisite “reasonable certainty” for a damages award without the necessity of a hearing. We therefore vacate the damages award and remand to the district court for a more extensive inquiry into the damages to which e360 is entitled."

Pg. 24: "According to the complaint, however, Spamhaus lists entities on the ROKSO for violating ISP terms of use, not “United States law.” The complaint does not allege that Spamhaus defamed e360 by claiming that e360 operated in violation of law. The facts supporting the default judgment, therefore, show only that e360 improperly was listed as a “spammer” by Spamhaus, applying Spamhaus’ own criteria. There is no basis in the judgment for an injunction that modifies Spamhaus’ generally applicable criteria for determining what entities qualify as spammers."

Now things will go back to the district court for redetermination of damages to be paid under the default.

Click on through to the SpamSuite.com page on this topic for more info and excellent analysis from Mr. Chandler.
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