EXCLUSIVE: Staten Island woman ordered to pay $1,000 fine for bashing floor refinishing business on Yelp
BY ANDY MAI , DAREH GREGORIAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, September 23, 2015, 2:30 AM
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KEN MURRAY/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSEmily Fanelli said that she is 'sick' after learning of the judge's ruling, ordering her to pay $1,000 for bashing a floor refinishing business in online reviews.
The reviews are in — and they’ll cost a Staten Island woman $1,000.
That’s how much a judge has ordered Emily Fanelli to pay for bashing the owner of a floor refinishing business as a “liar” and a “con artist” in scathing online reviews.
"Are you kidding me? I'm sick," the 67-year-old said after she found about the judge’s ruling from the Daily News.
"People do reviews all the time. I shouldn't have to pay anything," she said. “It’s freedom of speech.”
But in a ruling made public Tuesday, Staten Island Civil Court Judge Philip Straniere said Fanelli’s rants on Yelp and another site had crossed the line.
Fanelli had hired the company, Mr. Sandless, to refinish the floors in her living room and dining room in February for $695.
The company offers “affordable” floor refinishing with “green” chemicals, court papers say.
Fanelli wasn’t happy with the finished product, or the “corrective actions” the company took after she complained.
“The guy destroyed my home,” she said. “It was a total disaster — peeling.”
So she took to the silive.com website, where she’d found the Mr. Sandless ad, and blasted the company and owner, Matt Gardiner, calling him “a liar and a con artist.”
She then went on customer review website Yelp, where she was unable to contain her anger in a coherent sentence.
"this guy mat the owner is a scam do not use him you will regret doing business with this company I'm going to court he is a scam customers please beware he will destroy your floors he is nothing by a liar he robs customers, and promises you everything if you want s--- then go with him if you like nice work find another he is A SCAM LIAR BULL----ER," she wrote.
Two weeks later, she went on Yelp again, complaining about her floors and urging anyone thinking of hiring Gardiner to email her for more information.
RICHARD VOGEL/APFinelli bashed the company Mr. Sandless to refinish floors in her home, but was incredibly unsatisfied with the work done. Her complaints on the review website Yelp may cost her $1,000.
In his ruling, Straniere said that post was “opinion and protected speech,” but the first two crossed the line from opinion to libel.
“Terms such as ‘scam,’ ‘con artist’ and ‘robs’ imply actions approaching criminal wrongdoing rather than someone who failed to live up to the terms of a contract,” Straniere wrote.
"They were personal in their invective and were designed to impugn his integrity and business practices with the intent to damage his business reputation," the judge said, ordering Fanelli to pay Gardiner $1000.
He also denied her bid to force Mr. Sandless to pay for the money she spent on another contractor, but said the company did have to pay her $400 because it didn’t have the proper licenses to do the work in her home.
The lawyer for Gardiner and his company, Jeffrey Eisenberg, praised the $1000 judgment, saying the judge made “the right decision.”
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