Left-leaning judges and commentators often decry the "Twiqbal" cases, which established heightened pleading standards that require the articulation of "plausible" claims at the pleading stages.
But that doesn't stop 'em from using those cases to reach a desirable result. As Judge McKeown does this morning in affirm a the dismissal of a claim against Yelp! at the pleading stage when the plaintiff alleged that Yelp! "made up" the underlying reviews:
"We have no trouble in this
case concluding that threadbare allegations of fabrication of
statements are implausible on their face and are insufficient
to avoid immunity under the CDA. See Iqbal, 556 U.S. at
678 (holding that a complaint must contain “sufficient factual
matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is
plausible on its face’” (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly,
550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)))."
There's no doubt that the complaint in this lawsuit was meritless. So I'm certainly not about to cry that Mr. Kimzey's lawsuit is dismissed.
And from what I read about his business from the one Yelp! review at issue, I'm not likely to use his services any time soon either.
Especially when combined with what I learned about his subsequent pro se litigation.
