Doctor Sues Website For Defamation, After Being Convicted For Hitting Diver With His Boat
from the insult-to-injury? dept
A couple of years ago, there was a boating accident, in which a boat driven by Roger Nicosia, an emergency room physician, hit a diver in the water, Robert Murphy, leading Murphy to lose both his legs. In an ensuing lawsuit, Nicosia was found guilty of violating navigational rules, a second-degree misdemeanor, and sentenced to a small fine and six-months probation. Rather than moving on, Nicosia is fighting back against some of his online critics, as he's suing a bunch of them -- and a website they use -- for libel. The article does not indicate what statements were actually made, but a quick search on the website -- Spearboard.com -- turns up many forum posts about Dr. Nicosia, many of which include angry statements, some of which may be defamatory. What surprises me, however, is the decision to sue Spearboard.com. It would seem, as an open forum, that the site operator has pretty strong Section 230 defenses. That doesn't absolve the individuals' comments, if they are defamatory, but suing the site itself seems to be going a bit far. Separately, does this doctor really want to call more attention to himself and this whole situation?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: defamation, message board, robert murphy, roger nicosia
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Threatened with legal action too?
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Section 230 protects the site from liability, but does it also mean the site cannot be named as a party to the suit? If so, that seems to me to be a Catch-22. How else could you get the site to remove the offending material?
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Re:
Yes.
With a few small exceptions (Roommates). Eric Goldman and Paul Alan Levy have discussed this in various places.
How else could you get the site to remove the offending material?
See our recent discussion on Ripoff Report.
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Didn't know. now i do.
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small correction
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sigh...
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Keep in mind, this is hurting him too, and one day he is likely going to regret getting so upset and making the situation worse without stopping to think for a second.
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Interesting note
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Law Suit
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Re: Law Suit
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What can I say...
Seriously, he is suing the other divers that were in the water and posted their side of the story on a public forum. I thought that we lived in a country of free speach. Everything said on SpearBoard is true. I sat at the hearings and feel that he should have had a greater punishment placed upon him for what he did to that diver.
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FWIW, Ms Welch, as bad as the actions you portrayed seem after the accident, you got some facts wrong, it's worse than you think. This is what I understand the facts to be: The boat was on auto-pilot. It is thought that the Dr was texting or otherwise distracted. When he finally saw the Diver Down Flag, instead of dropping to idle speed, he sped up and turned his boat, right over Rob. He did not at any time reduce speed, but fled the scene, watching the rescue unfold behind him. He did not make any distress calls, he rendered no aid but he did have his lawyer meet him at the dock. At some point it's alleged that he even attempted to erase his GPS.
I am not sure why the Coast Guard did not also prosecute. It would appear that many maritime laws were flagrantly broken before and during this mishap. Causing a collision, leaving the scene of an accident, not rendering aid are among many he should have been charged with, IMHO.
My wishes go out to Tony, SpearBoard and the other litigants: I hope you prevail. Also to Rob: I hope we dive together again soon. Your demeanor through out all of this has been amazingly heroic.
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Dr. and dive accident
I think the actions of leaving anyone in a medical distress is unthinkable and this guy is a trauma doctor - go figure!
Maybe - just maybe - whatever $$ this doctor should collect, if he is able to, will ultimately go to Rob when he wins his civil lawsuit.
Wouldn't you think that an average person who has caused such damage to someone, as well as those that were around him that day, would have some sort of remorse and feel really bad and want to help Rob out?
Of course, this is all my opinion. It is fact, however, that the doctor cut Rob's legs off and left him.
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Spearboard Lack of Oversight
They also completely ignore requests to moderate libelous or profane name calling postings.
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Just the Facts Ma'am
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