Free for a Fee

This is the third time this year I’m blogging about homeowners’ associations suppressing online speech (see my posts on the Revock and Milazzo cases). I’m pretty sure HOA online censorship is a growth industry (indeed, my CRFA primer calls out the housing/lodging industry as one of the places where anti-review clauses were deployed). If you’re looking for paper topics, this may be worth exploring.

This lawsuit involves the Hamptons at MetroWest condo complex in Orlando. Apparently they have some major issues with construction defects or maintenance. Fox resides in the condo community. The HOA sued him for “a continuous course of conduct designed and carried out for the purpose of harassing, intimidating, and threatening other residents, the Association, and its representatives” (unfortunately, the opinion wasn’t more specific about Fox’s prior activities). The parties settled that lawsuit. Shortly thereafter, the HOA sought a contempt order (apparently because “Fox utilized the internet to voice his displeasure over the quality of life at the Hamptons”), and the court:

ordered Fox to stop posting, circulating, and publishing any pictures or personal information about current or future residents, board members, management, employees or personnel of the management company, vendors of the Hamptons, or any other management company of the Hamptons on any website, blog, or social media. He was further ordered to take down all such information currently on any of his websites or blogs. The trial court also prohibited Fox from starting any new blogs, websites or social media websites related to the Hamptons or the Association. It informed Fox that, as his punishment, if someone asked him on his social media page if he enjoyed living at the Hamptons, he could not post a response online. Instead, he would have to call the person to express his concerns.

Oh, Florida….

Fortunately, this doesn’t fly with the appeals court. Unlike the Revock case, this court actually sees the First Amendment implications here. After waxing philosophic about the impermissibility of prior restraints, the court concludes:

more

Case citation: Fox v. Hamptons at MetroWest Condominium Association, 2017 WL 3091217 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. July 21, 2017)

The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/07/court-cant-ban-resident-from-discussing-hoa-online-fox-v-hamptons-at-metrowest-condos.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.