VICTORY! The Jonmon lawsuit is over! Dismissed voluntarily with prejudice by the plaintiff

[ron_newman]

My awesome lawyer Dan Booth has just informed me that Jonathan Monsarrat's lawyer has filed a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal With Prejudice. This means that the case is OVER, against all defendants, named and unnamed, Doe and Buck alike. "With Prejudice" means that it can never be filed again, against any of us, for any statement in any of the exhibits that were attached to the complaint.

Johnny Monsarrat and his lawyer tried several times to reach a settlement agreement with Dan and me, but for various reasons we ended up rejecting each proposal. In the end, he has simply given up, without any mutual agreement, public or private.

Here's the official text of the notice:

NOTICE OF VOLUNTARY DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE

Pursuant to the provisions of Mass. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(i), the Plaintiff, Jonathan Graves Monsarrat, in the above-captioned matter, hereby files and gives notice of dismissal, with prejudice and without costs to either party, as to Deb Filcman, Ron Newman, the Doe Defendant identified as Doe Defendant "srakkt" in paragraph 51 of the Amended Complaint, whose real name is Richard James Scheffler of Somerville, Massachusetts, and John and Jane Does 1-99, as defendants in the Amended Complaint.

ETA: If Johnny had not voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit today, Dan Booth was ready to file this motion to dismiss and this supporting memorandum on Monday. (The supporting memo is the more interesting document.) It would be a shame for Dan to go to all that trouble and not be able to share his work, so I'm linking it here with his permission, for your legal edification.

Comments

[bex77]

Oh what wonderful news! Now we can go back to posting about burritos, parking tickets, frozen yogurt and so forth!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

With the noise dying down from the Jon-mon stupidity, I think I heard an airplane! ;-)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Someone delivered me a misshapen pizza. Oh the humanity!

(Ron et. al., I am glad that this is over for you.)

[thespian.livejournal.com]

well, the planes 2 nights ago were stupidly low flying. and loud.

(it didn't bother me, but I and others I know were actively wondering why they were, because the night was clear)

[jymdyer.livejournal.com]

@bex77 - You call those burritos? [And so on and so forth, in that fashion.]

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

I got a parking ticket in front of the frozen yogurt place that used to be a burrito place ...

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

WOOHOO! *champagne* *firecrackers* *very, very, very good chocolate*

[rojagato.livejournal.com]

I wish that comments could turn into tangibles. Maybe that's Net 3.0?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Hooray!

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

oh thank god! is it a safe assumption that since his suit was wildly unsuccessful, he can't exactly use it to prop up his credentials for his anti-cyberbullying business?

[ron_newman]

Let's hope he has enough sense to realize this.

[veek.livejournal.com]

HOORAY!!

[hermitgeecko.livejournal.com]

SO glad this will go away now! Not that it hasn't been an interesting look into the legal system, but... I never want that kind of look to happen to anyone I care about again. Ugh.

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Yay! Relief and joy!

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it. Sorry you had to endure such {insert word here} from that {insert another word here}. I'd still have your lawyer present Somerville PD with the evidence that {3 guesses who} was actively inviting people to the party.

[ron_newman]

I don't know what the MA statute of limitations is for social host liability for underage drinking, but I bet it has passed by now.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I meant to look for that clip!

[zubatac.livejournal.com]

Hurray, it was about time.

[alinexu.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I sympathize with Johnny Monsarrat's embarrassment about being arrested and accused of harassment. I've certainly enjoyed hearing about "Wheel Questions". But I also am in favor of the first amendment, so all told I'm glad that Johnny Monsarrat had to surrender in this misguided lawsuit.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I get it to a point: Having your past bad decisions follow you around is not fun. When I was in human resources, I had to discuss with people things they did in high school that, as people in their thirties, are still messing with their lives to some degree.

By the same token, however, you've got to own those mistakes and your part in them. I simply personally do not see that in attempting to sue 100 strangers because they have a low opinion of you.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

I have kept my mouth shut through all of this, preferring to interact with friends privately however, I am so, so glad this is over. I was the recipiient of 2 letters because stalking me at one address just wouldn't do, I guess. Ron, please thank your lawyer profusely for me. This has been an insanely difficult year for me on all fronts and this suit was the last straw.

It is my sincere hope that this follows Johnny Boy and haunts him for life, particularly when trying to attract investors in his future ventures.

Huzzah!

[rojagato.livejournal.com]

So happy for everyone that the suit was dismissed, with prejudice, and that the Does and named parties, among whom are a number of my real-life and Internet friends, can get on with their lives.

Disposition of the defense fund was kind of touched-on in a subthread here, but I want to say that as a contributor -- and this is just me talking -- I feel that the maintainers can do what they want with it. As someone in that thread said, I think that show of support did send a message in itself, as to the resolve of this community to stand together and for each other. Maybe it didn't make a material difference to the outcome regards the plaintiff's side, but I do feel that it made a ton of difference on the defendants' side.

Again, this is just me, but when I make a donation to any kind of fund, as soon as I commit, it's out of my hands. I've already done my due diligence, and in donating, made a statement of trust.

In this case, I'm really, really glad that this might not even have gone to filing costs, let alone to actual, serious, billable hours. If the fund maintainers are going to turn over funds to the named defendants' counsel, I can certainly say that for my pittance at least, I'm totally fine with whatever those counsel do with it or advise to be done with it -- the entertainment and education provided by Booth's and Kleinsasser's letters, and Jay Wolman's advisories elsewhere, were well worth it.

And if they advise to turn it back to the donors ... well, I'd just say take those lawyers out to the Burren. Or for fro-yo. ;)

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! whew.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I totally missed this the other day, so let me say a belated but nonetheless heartfelt CONGRATS to Ron and all of the other defendants. HOORAY!