Eviction defense firm prevails against landlord attorney over parody Twitter account

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A libel lawsuit between one of the biggest landlord-side law firms in Southern California and a prominent eviction defense nonprofit over a parody Twitter account is finally over, after a jury found in favor of the defendants, the tenant-side law firm Basta and its founder, Danny Bramzon.

"I feel relieved,” said Bramzon, reached on the phone after the verdict. "Today was a successful day for Basta, the First Amendment, and tenants' rights in general."

Dennis Block, who once bragged to have "evicted more tenants than any other human being on the planet Earth," sued Bramzon, — who himself once boasted, "I'm fucking Robin Hood!” — in 2017.

The complaint largely centered on parody Twitter account @DennisPBlock, set up and managed by an information technology contractor working for Basta. Though the account was clearly labeled as a parody, Block felt that the tweets crossed a line and portrayed him, as a "greedy thief and criminal, who overcharges and steals from his clients and others," as well as a "racist, sexist and misogynist," he wrote in his complaint.

One tweet, for example, read, "My associates are all either obese, disciplined by the bar, or cheap 'people of color' working against their own kind. Oh, or my idiot sons." Others targeted Block's attorneys, notably Hasti Rahsepar, who was also a plaintiff in the case. For example: "To all the clients, judges, and opposing counsel who are always complaining about Hasti… yes we KNOW she’s too old to dress like that, but what can we do? 🤷🏻‍♂️"

The case survived an anti-SLAPP motion when a judge found that while the speech being sued over was a matter of public interest, the plaintiffs were likely to prevail at the trial.

A Second Appellate District panel went one step further, upholding the ruling but finding that the speech wasn't protected after all, writing, "A majority of the statements consist of vulgar and/or adolescent personal insults, misogynistic, racist, and xenophobic comments, and other slurs having nothing to do with any reasoned discussion of trustworthiness, competence or any other 'public issue or an issue of public interest." The judges added that Bramzon could face discipline from the State Bar if he was found guilty at trial.

Brett Schulte, the IT contractor who was also named as a defendant, didn't participate in the case and was found to be in default. Basta and Bramzon said, during the trial, that it was Schulte alone who was the brainchild of the fake Block account, on Twitter, now known as X, and that they had virtually nothing to do with it. They also argued that the tweets were jokes, not meant to be taken as facts.

"No average reader would take any of this seriously," said Bramzon's lawyer, Makoa Kawabata, during his closing argument. Basta attorney Eric Anderson added: "This is the sort of non-literal language people use to make fun of each other on Twitter."

Block's attorney, Christopher Frost, told the jury: "Just because there's non-literal language everywhere on Twitter doesn't mean you can use it as a platform to vomit cruelty." He argued that many of the tweets were assertions of provable fact, and suggested that the jury give Block and Rahsepar a combined $6 million.

The jury deliberated for just over a day before finding in favor of Basta and Bramzon on all counts. On the verdict form, they indicated that they believed that Basta and Bramzon were responsible for the tweets, knew they were false (or acted negligently in determining their veracity), but they could not reasonably be construed as factual assertions about Block or Rahsepar — that, in essence, they were just jokes.

"We’re obviously disappointed in the result," said Frost, over the phone, after the verdict, "but we’re pleased the jury determined that Danny Bramzon and Basta authorized the fake tweets and the fake Twitter account, and knew or should have known about the harm they were causing. We look forward to success on appeal."

Frost said he spoke to several jurors, who told him that the tweets in question were so outrageous that they couldn't be believed.

"That’s a scary standard," said Frost. "What it means is, the more aggressive, the more outlandish the things you say, the more protected you are. That scares the shit out of me, if that’s really the new standard — that the worst thing you say, the more protected you are."

In an email, Rahsepar wrote, "I am glad that the jury found Daniel Bramzon and Basta, Inc. were responsible for the creation of this filthy Twitter account."

She added: "In a profession in which we take an oath of conduct and civility, it's shameful and a disgrace to the legal profession that an attorney must resort to such measures. It speaks volumes of one's character and manner in which they practice. We are happy to know that this type of conduct will be reported to the state bar as the court of appeals decision also concluded it would have state bar ramifications if Daniel Bramzon and Basta, Inc. were to be found responsible for the creation of such vile statements."

Brett Schulte said, in an email, "For what it’s worth, the jury was wrong about part of it. BASTA/Bramzon not only weren’t behind the tweets, they didn’t even KNOW about them. In fact I was at the time very frustrated that everyone but Bramzon thought they were hilarious. He didn’t even want to hear about it."

Bramzon, too, denied playing any role in the fake Twitter account.

Relations between the two sides were especially sour thought the proceedings, so much so that the judge was moved to order them not to speak to each other in the hallways outside the court room. Last week, the plaintiffs asked the judge to admonish Bramzon for calling out to Frost, in the hallway, “Mr. Frost, my mom wants to yell at you.”

When asked if he felt any remorse about the animosity that developed between the two firms, Bramzon replied, "The only animosity I have is that you have a landlord attorney who brags about making people homeless. Landlord attorneys have a job to do, but when you relish it, that’s a different story."

When asked if he had anything to add, Bramzon said with a laugh, "Robin hood prevails again."

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