Sorry about this morning…notes for a future post were accidentally posted, if only momentarily. It’s just another BC moment (Before Coffee).
I flagged a story by Gene Park in yesterday’s Star-Advertiser about a student housing company suing a student for posting critical comments on Facebook. Of course, because of the newspaper’s paywall, many of you won’t be able to read the story. Here the basic stuff:
A student housing firm is suing a Kapiolani Community College student for publishing Facebook blog posts critical of how its apartment buildings are managed.
Hawaii Student Housing, which operates The Ohia and The Hana student housing buildings in Waikiki, is seeking injunctive relief from Dylan Hunt, a 25-year-old KCC student who said he has lived in both complexes.
Hunt wrote on his Facebook page in July that the Ohia and Hana have problems such “black mold,” cockroaches, hidden fees and slow Internet speeds.
Several things. Even this brief story, an outline really, suggests an interesting situation. Too bad there wasn’t an editor who pushed for more, so we get only the bare bones.
What’s interesting here is that it is obviously a SLAPP suit aimed primarily at squashing criticism. The term refers to “Strategic lawsuit against public participation,” designed to silence public debate and criticism. These are real dangers here for bloggers and users of social media, which includes a whole lot of people. It’s the kind of story the S-A could have jumped on, but didn’t.
The lawsuit was filed in July. In August, the UH Manoa student newspaper, Ka Leo, ran an excellent story about the case, accompanied by a link to the student’s Facebook page (absent in the S-A version). It took the S-A until mid-October to produce the most minimal version of the story. Certainly a missed opportunity.
When I read a story like this, my first reaction is to wonder, who owns those buildings? The story identifies the company as Hawaii Student Housing, but that doesn’t tell the reader anything. It just pushes the question back another level.
Who is Hawaii Student Housing? State business registration records take us another step. They show Hawaii Student Housing is simply a trade name registered by another company, 2280 KUHIO AVENUE DEVELOPMENT LLC. And then, still following the bread crumbs, 2280 Kuhio turns out to be controlled by F-L MANAGEMENT, INC. of Fairview, Oregon.
So far so good. But the question still lingers. Who is F-L Mangement? For that, I turned to Oregon’s state corporation records for the answer.
According to the Oregon Secretary of State’s website, the president of F-L Management is Dudley Fullard-Leo, while the company’s registered agent is Marcus Fullard-Leo.
Ring a bell? It’s a family with a big Hawaii history.
The Fullard-Leo family bought Palmyra Island in the 1920s and owned it through the 20th century. There were three brothers, Leslie, Dudley and Ainsley.
Leslie, who acted in 30 Hollywood films, died in 2001, Ainsley in 2008.
So the company has ties back to this Kamaaina family, an angle that was missed.
For the small world file, we bought our house in Kaaawa from Leslie Fullard-Leo in 1988. It had been his “country” house, a small Hicks Home in their traditional design, renovated to add more windows that bring the outside in. The house next door was previously owned by Hilo Hattie. Some old-timers refer to our mauka section of Kaaawa as “Hollywood Hill,” an apparent reference to their film careers.
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Very intereting, Ian. I saw that article in the SA yesterday and wondered about it, too. It really scares me when I think how my blog sometimes criticizes certain businesses (like Cutter Cars, for instance). BTW, do you think that applies to negative restaurant reviews, also? lol.
Yes, the SA could have done more with the story (you could probably say that about a lot of stories in other media too) but at least they had it and it was brought to light in a publication that reaches the most people. A lot is written about Civil Beat on this site……this type of story is right up their alley. Too bad they missed it. Also, what about the TV media?
I like your Hollywood Hills connection. But the whole point as I see it is the issues brought to the surface by the young student. Are they true? Have they been taken care of? Students are often very limited in resources and can’t always vote with their feet, move somewhere that is. Also, is this company taking our state money and profiting from their providing substandard housing. They should be shamed into cleaning up their act and not attack this persons exercise of his basic right of free speech.
Perhaps complaining students should contact Civil Beat directly for better coverge of their concerns even tho their staff size is small.
given time, they will. Civil Beat can and should encourage this.
I doubt it Pat. Nobody likes riding on anothers sled. CB missed it and they will move on.
Your prediction proved wrong.
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/11/01/13395-when-do-facebook-comments-go-too-far/
Vent on Facebook about mold and cockroaches. Share the post on Craigslist. Then get sued for it?
That’s what happened to Dylan Hunt. The 25-year-old student at Kapiolani Community College blogged on Facebook in July about cockroaches, mold, deceptive billing and other problems he said he’d seen at the student housing complex where he lived.
A few weeks later, the company that manages the apartments sued Hunt for defamation. Hawaii Student Housing said Hunt’s words falsely damaged its reputation and business prospects.
Hmm, I agree the S-A story had some shortcomings but I’m not sure that failure to mention the SLAPP suit angle or the underlying ownership of the property are among them.
As for the lawsuit, I’m not sure it’s a SLAPP suit in the general sense of the term or under Hawaii law. According to your linked reference, SLAPP suits are defined by the purpose of deterring resort to government intrervention on a matter of public interest. I see the public interest here (a public institution of higher edication steering students to possibly substandard housing) but posting comments on Facebook doesn’t seem to meet the government intervention criteria, as in making a complaint to the University, to DCCA, or whoever. Also, the definion of a SLAPP suit in Hawaii’s anti-SLAPP statute, Chapter 634F, HRS, is “a lawsuit that lacks substantial justification or is interposed for delay or harassment and that is solely based on the party’s public participation before a governmental body.” Harassment? Sure. SLAPP? Maybe not.
As for the kammaina connection , is it anything more than a curious footnote? Is it relevant to how the business is run or its suit against the student? I’m not connecting the dots, I guess.
In any event, the whole situation sucks, that’s for sure.
SLAPP suit? Maybe. But certainly one filed without the benefit of a good PR firm. If HSH had just left it alone perhaps a handful of people- if that- would have heard the student’s complaint. But now, because they filed suit, it’s plastered all over the front page of the “newspaper of record” (albeit without any chance of a successful Google search d/t the paywall). All that does guarantee that what readers will take away is not the denial but the “fact” that the housing is plagued by “black mold, cockroaches, hidden fees and slow Internet speeds.” Not smart.
EVERYone has got hidden fees. EVERYone has gotcockalaroaches. many have slow Internet speeds and more than you know have NO Internet speeds. But Black mold. That’s sum nasty sheyite.
Today’s paper, for us Pleistocene relicts who still get hard copy, has an “Off the News” to whit (or whitless, your call): “If you paw through the Facebook help files, there’s a lot of stuff about how to use the blog but nothing in plain view stating something like ‘This might be only Facebook, but libel and slander laws still apply’. Yes college students may not heed it, but a warning would be nice. Put it in red letters.”
The first and best defense against charges of libel and slander are that the statements are actually true. The SA might wish to explain why they mentioned “slander” or “libel” in relation to Dylan Hunt’s statement. Did they actually investigate the circumstances alleged by Dylan before they started tossing around such terms? Have they received any advertising money from the owners?
Such soft targets. But it was once a newspaper.
here is an interesting local craigslist ad looking for someone to assist in muzzling the public
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/lgl/2651787566.html
Dylan here.
Thanks to my last job, I was able to get free legal counsel from an attorney specializing in defamation. As predicted, they seem to just be trying to intimidate me and silence me. In the demand letter they sent me, they literally told me under normal conditions they would just ask me to remove the facts, but in this particular case, they demand that I remove everything, more or less including my opinions.
They also contradicted themselves publicly by stating that this has effected them economically, but in an email to Civil Beat, they stated that they are “at or near full capacity”.
The best part that I wish I could say is a secret for court 😉
Thanks for the support guys.
PS — I am also countersuing and the department of commerce and consumer affairs is now involved (RICO)
Fullard-Leo family is currently (2014) suing a building he owns the ground lease to in Waikiki —-he claims that the building is not keeping up the maintenance
—-and wants to take the property back
—-this building just happens to be adjacent to the King’s Village. Fullard-Leo is associated with the sale of the Kings Village that is to be torn down and major new hotel built there.
—-any related data to this would be appreciated.