Twitter Post Leads to Lawsuit

A Twitter post that detailed a moldy apartment landed a Chicago renter with a lawsuit, after her landlord came across the disgruntled message. Horizon Group Management LLC is suing Amanda Bonnen for $50,000, claiming that the post was malicious and defamed the company.

Bonnen posted the inflammatory tweet in May, under the handle abonnen: “@JessB123 You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

Bonnen was living at an apartment managed by Horizon Group Management at 4242 N. Sheridan Rd.  She had filed a class action lawsuit against the company before the offending Tweet came to light, over alleged violations of the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance. The suit claims that Horizon violated leasing rules by not paying tenants interest on security deposits and not warning renters about overloading porches.

A statement released by Horizon said that no mold was ever found in Bonnen’s apartment. But water leaked into her apartment and others in the complex after a contractor made mistakes repairing a roof. Horizon said they had taken care of Bonnen’s grievances before she moved out of the building.

Bonnen moved out after her lease expired on June 30, according to Horizon.
She only had 20 followers when the post was published, although her account has since been deactivated. Horizon discovered the tweet while conducting due diligence on the lawsuit filed by Bonnen.

Horizon’s Jeff Michael said that the company manages 1,500 apartments in Chicago and has a reputation it wants to maintain. A Chicago Sun-Times story quoted Michael as saying “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of organization.”

Michaels later tried to clarify his remarks in a July 28 press release, contending that the remarks were tongue-in-cheek and the organization was acting to defend its reputation “just as we would for any other related comment made in a public forum.”

As the story rapidly made its rounds around the blogosphere, some news outlets warned about the dangers of self-publishing social networking sites. Others saw Bonnen’s tweet as a victory for consumers facing lawsuits from big companies: the negative Web PR is likely to cost Horizon more than any money it collects from Bonnen.

Despite the suit’s groundbreaking nature, it isn’t the first of its kind. In March, a fashion designer sued singer Courtney Love for allegedly defamind her on Twitter.

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