Dyroff v. The Ultimate Software Group, No. 18-15175 (9th Cir. 2019)
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The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims against Ultimate Software, operator of the Experience Project website, for its alleged role in the death of her son. Her son purchased heroin from another user through the site and died of fentanyl toxicity from the heroin.
The panel held that Ultimate Software, as the operator of Experience Project, is immune from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) because its functions, including recommendations and notifications, were content-neutral tools used to facilitate communications. The panel also held that plaintiff failed to plead sufficient facts to show that Ultimate Software colluded with drug dealers on the Experience Project, and Ultimate Software did not owe a duty to plaintiff's son.
Court Description: Communications Decency Act. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal, based on The Ultimate Software Group’s immunity from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, of an action alleging claims concerning Ultimate Software’s role in the death of plaintiff’s son. Ultimate Software was the operator of the Experience Project website, which allegedly facilitated illegal drug sales. Plaintiff’s son died of a drug overdose after buying drugs from a fellow Experience Project user. The panel held that Ultimate Software satisfied all three prongs of the test for immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Specifically, the panel held that Ultimate Software was an interactive computer service because it did not create or publish its own content under the plain language of the statute. The panel also held that plaintiff’s son treated Ultimate Software as a publisher or speaker of other’s information or content. Finally, the panel held that Ultimate Software published information/content provided by another information content provider where the content at issue was created by plaintiff’s son and his drug dealer. The panel rejected plaintiff’s argument that a website develops content if it manipulates the content in a unique way through content-neutral tools. DYROFF V. THE ULTIMATE SOFTWARE GROUP 3 The panel held that plaintiff did not plead sufficient facts to show that Ultimate Software colluded with drug dealers on Experience Project. The panel held that plaintiff’s allegation that user anonymity equaled promoting drug transactions was not plausible. The panel concluded that the district court was right to dismiss all claims related to this supposed theory of liability because Ultimate Software was immune under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The panel held that Ultimate Software did not owe a duty of care to plaintiff’s son because Experience Project’s features amounted to content-neutral functions that did not create a risk of harm. The panel rejected plaintiff’s claim that misfeasance by Ultimate Software created a duty to plaintiff’s son.
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