Woman can go ahead with lawsuit alleging Facebook defamation

  • Associated Press
  • Tuesday, August 4, 2015 1:43pm
  • Business

NEW YORK — A New York court has reinstated the claims of a woman who says an ex-boyfriend broke into her Facebook account and sent malicious sexual statements.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Tuesday restored the $350,000 lawsuit Chantay Sewell brought against Phil Bernardin.

A lower-court judge said the statute of limitations had expired on Sewell’s claims Bernardin broke into AOL and Facebook accounts. The appeals court agrees it’s too late to bring AOL Inc. claims but says claims regarding Menlo Park, California-based Facebook are timely.

Sewell says in court documents she began dating the public school administrator when they worked at a Queens middle school in 2002. The relationship ended nine years later.

Bernardin has fought the lawsuit on procedural grounds. His lawyers haven’t commented.

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