John Paul Mac Isaac
The Delaware computer repairman at the center of the Hunter Biden laptop story that popped up before the election filed a defamation lawsuit against Twitter on Monday that also was dismissed on Monday. John Paul Mac Isaac attempted to sue Twitter for $500,000,000 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida but was immediately shot down because the complaint “fail[ed] to allege complete diversity.”
The docket tells the story of the case history:
The complete diversity requirement means “no plaintiff shares a state of citizenship with any defendant.” But Twitter is incorporated in Delaware and Mac Isaac is a Delaware resident. For this reason, the judge said, the court lacked jurisdiction.
“According to the Complaint, Defendant made false statements that Plaintiff is a ‘hacker’ in reference to materials obtained by the New York Post and shared on Twitter in an exposé concerning the contents of Hunter Biden’s computer hard drive. For the reasons set forth below, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom said in a brief Monday sua sponte dismissal that was entered into the docket on Tuesday. “For a court to have diversity jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), ‘all plaintiffs must be diverse from all defendants.'”
As a result, the judge dismissed the case without prejudice—meaning it could be filed again if Mac Isaac was able to establish that the court has jurisdiction to hear the case (he could also go to state court in Delaware).
“The Court cannot conclude that Defendant [Twitter] is a Florida citizen. The Complaint merely alleges that Defendant maintains an office in Florida, but it does not allege where the ‘principal place of business’ is located,” the judge said in a footnote.
Read the filing below:
[Image via New York Post/YouTube screengrab]
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow Law&Crime:
