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Weaverv.Millsaps

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A23A1234
DecidedFebruary 7, 2024
Reporter370 Ga. App. 513; 898 S.E.2d 239; 2024 Ga. App. LEXIS 45; 2024 WL 468198
JudgesBarnes, P. J.; Land, J.; Senior Judge Fuller.
Tags
CivilDefamationAnti-SLAPPProtected SpeechLikelihood of SuccessGoogle ReviewsOCGA 9-11-11.1
Case Summary

After Michael Weaver urged followers to post negative Google reviews of Valerie Millsaps’s frame shop, she responded that he had threatened to kill other shop members. Weaver sued for libel, and Millsaps moved to dismiss under Georgia’s anti-SLAPP statute. The Court of Appeals held that Millsaps’s response was protected speech in an ongoing public controversy and that Weaver, a public figure, failed to show a reasonable probability of proving actual malice. On appeal, he challenged only the claim that she accused him of making death threats; Millsaps said she believed it based on reports of a threat against another business owner. Even if her plural wording was inaccurate, the record did not show she knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded its truth, and the court treated that discrepancy as immaterial hyperbole. It did not decide whether the statements were true. The court affirmed dismissal of the libel claim under the anti-SLAPP statute.

Opinion

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