A Cook County judge ruled that a tweet by a tenant was not defamatory as a matter of law.

Judge Diane Larsen found that the tweet, “who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay,” was susceptible of innocent construction and not defamatory per se as a matter of law. A tweet is a posting on a page on Twitter.com that is limited to 140 characters.

The lawsuit was brought by the defendant’s former landlord. Defendant filed a motion to dismiss arguing that the tweet was not defamatory as a matter of law because the tweet was imprecise, contained no verifiable facts, and when considered in the context of defendant’s other tweets, should be subject to innocent construction. The court agreed.

Defendant was represented by Balough Law Offices, LLC, The John Marshall Law School’s Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law, and Jeffrey Sobek.

Download a copy of the complaint, motion to dismiss, plaintiff's response to motion, defendant's reply to response, and the court order here.

Horizon Group Management, LLC v Amanda Bonnen, Cook County No. 2009 L 8675.