SC09-272 – Internet Solutions Corporation v. Tabatha Marshall

State: Florida

Docket No: SC09-272

Case Date: 06/17/2010

Preview:Supreme Court of Florida
____________ No. SC09-272 ____________ INTERNET SOLUTIONS CORPORATION, Appellant, vs. TABATHA MARSHALL, Appellee. [June 17, 2010] PARIENTE, J. Tabatha Marshall, a resident of the State of Washington, owns and operates a website on which she posts about consumer-related issues. According to Internet Solutions Corporation (ISC), Marshall made posts on her website in which she accused ISC, an employment and recruiting firm, of ongoing criminal activity. ISC, whose principal place of business is in Florida, sued Marshall for defamation in a federal district court in Florida. The only issue in this case is whether

Marshall`s allegedly defamatory posts on her website subject her to personal jurisdiction in Florida under this state`s long-arm statute.1 We rephrase the question certified to us by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to narrowly focus on the issue of whether defamatory posts about a Florida corporation on an out-of-state website by the operator of the website constitute the commission of a tortious act within Florida under the long-arm statute, specifically section 48.193(1)(b), Florida Statutes (2007).2 Accordingly, we rephrase the certified question as follows: DOES A NONRESIDENT COMMIT A TORTIOUS ACT WITHIN FLORIDA FOR PURPOSES OF SECTION 48.193(1)(b) WHEN HE OR SHE MAKES ALLEGEDLY DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS ABOUT A COMPANY WITH ITS PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS IN FLORIDA BY POSTING THOSE STATEMENTS ON A WEBSITE, WHERE THE WEBSITE POSTS CONTAINING THE STATEMENTS ARE ACCESSIBLE AND ACCESSED IN FLORIDA?

1. We have jurisdiction because the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals certified a question to this Court, which is determinative of the cause and for which there is no controlling precedent. Art. V,

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