Some Claims in Lawsuit Against USCF Are Dismissed; Others Are Still Pending

Source: Gambit - The New York Times Chess Blog February 20, 2009, 12:35 pm By Dylan Loeb McClain Some claims in a Texas lawsuit against the United States Chess Federation, some of its officials and other members of the federation have been dismissed, but other claims remain. The lawsuit by Susan Polgar, a member of the federation’s board, arose out of a dispute that began in 2007 when Samuel H. Sloan, a former member of the board, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan accusing Ms. Polgar and her husband, Paul Truong, who is also on the board, of posting nasty remarks on the Internet in Mr. Sloan’s name. Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong have denied being the authors of the postings. Mr. Sloan based his suit on a report posted on the federation’s internal discussion forum saying that the person who had posted the items attributed to Mr. Sloan was almost certainly Mr. Truong. The report was written by Brian Mottershead, a systems administrator for the federation. In addition to Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong, Mr. Sloan’s suit named the federation, other members of the board and other members of the federation as defendants. The suit was dismissed last August by Judge Denny Chin who ruled that the court lacked “subject matter jurisdiction.” While Mr. Sloan’s suit was pending, the federation hired Karl S. Kronenberger, a San Francisco attorney, to look into Mr. Sloan’s allegations. Mr. Kronenberger concluded that Mr. Truong was the author of the postings and reported his findings at a federation meeting last August. In December, the federation filed a lawsuit in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in Illinois seeking the removal of Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong from the board. Ms. Polgar’s lawyer, Whitney Leigh, said that the lawsuit should be thrown out because it was not authorized by the full board, on which Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong still sit. Ms. Polgar brought her suit in the United States District Court in Lubbock, Texas, where she lives, last August. In it, she claimed libel, slander, defamation, business disparagement, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, civil conspiracy, and breach of fiduciary duty, among other things. Thursday, Judge Sam R. Cummings dismissed all claims of negligence and infliction of emotional distress against all defendants. He also ruled that Ms. Polgar must file an amended complaint by March 16 stipulating why the Texas court has jurisdiction over several defendants, including Mr. Mottershead, Brian Lafferty, a federation member who is running for the board, Hal Bogner, a systems administrator for the federation, and ChessMagnetSchool, Mr. Bogner’s company. (The New York Times uses an interactive chess board on its Gambit chess blog that was developed by ChessMagnetSchool.) In a telephone interview Friday, James L. Killion, Ms. Polgar’s attorney, said, “All of the main claims remain intact and of course we are going to pursue those.” He added that on the jurisdictional matter, “We reasonably believe that we can provide the court with ample pleadings to sustain those causes of action.” In an E-mail message, Mr. Lafferty wrote, “Judge Cummings’ decision today in Lubbock, Tex., was a partial win for the U.S.C.F. and most of the defendants. Unfortunately, it means continued and increasing legal expenses that the U.S.C.F., as a struggling non-profit organization, can ill afford.”