The courts have not been kind to Mark Mumma lately.
A Virginia judge handed the Oklahoma anti-spam crusader another in a series of defeats recently when she ruled that Omega World Travel’s $3.8 million defamation suit against him will go to trial in front of a jury on April 25.
The news comes on the heels of an additional defeat Mumma suffered in a separate spam-related lawsuit he brought against another company.
An Oklahoma appeals court last month upheld a lower court’s ruling to throw out Mumma’s lawsuit against El Chico Mexican Café for three e-mails the restaurant allegedly sent him.
In the case of Mumma versus Omega, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Alexandria division on March 30 granted Omega a partial summary judgment, allowing its $3.8 million against Mumma to go to trial in front of a jury
The ruling came after Mumma—who in an increasingly belligerent interview with this newsletter admitted he knew someone subscribed his e-mail address to Omega’s Web site—canceled a settlement hearing with the travel marketer at the last minute that had been scheduled to take place in front of a magistrate judge several days earlier, according to Omega’s staff counsel, John Lawless.
Omega was willing to end its defamation lawsuit against Mumma if he would post an apology online for allegedly calling Omega and its owners, Gloria and Daniel Bohan, spammers; remove any references to them, and agree to never post anything about them again, said Lawless.
Mumma, however, demanded “a significant amount of money” in order to settle, said Lawless.
The trial at the end of this month will be to determine if Mumma postings about Omega and the Bohans were made negligently with actual malice, or with reckless disregard to the truth. If the jury determines they were, Mumma may owe Omega significant punitive damages.
However, victory for Omega may not translate into a whole lot of cash.
A Forbes article in February reported Mumma is more than $50,000 in debt because of his legal battles. He’s also created a Web site, 2bucksamonth.org, to solicit donations from supporters of his crusade.
In 2005, Mumma received six marketing e-mails from Cruise.com, which he claimed were unsolicited. He threatened in a letter to sue Cruise.com’s parent, Omega, unless the company paid him $6,250.
When Omega refused, postings on one of Mumma’s anti-spam Web sites accused Omega, its Web site Cruise.com and its owners Daniel and Gloria Bohan of being spammers. The Web site also posted a photo of the Bohans that had apparently been copied from Cruise.com and described the couple as “Cruise.com spammers,” according to court records.
The Bohans turned around and sued Mumma in federal court for $3.8 million in damages, alleging defamation.
In response, Mumma countersued the Bohans under Oklahoma and federal anti-spam laws.
Last November, The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a district court ruling in favor of Omega. Though Mumma claimed Omega’s e-mail headers contained law-breaking inaccuracies, the court said the inaccuracies did not make Omega’s headers “materially false or materially misleading.”
Lawless said Omega is still willing to settle with Mumma, but an apology is no longer sufficient. Lawless declined to get more specific.
Mumma did not respond to a request for comment.
