Pushback: Judge rules that libel suit against two black professors for slandering white real estate assessor can proceed – Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

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Bring a gun to a knife fight: A U.S. district judge on August 2, 2023 ruled [pdf] that the defamation lawsuit of real estate assessor Shane Lanham against two black Johns Hopkins professors can now proceed.

And boy, does Lanhan stand a good chance of winning. This is a followup of an earlier blacklist story from February. The two professors, Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott, had publicly accused Lanham on national television of being a bigot because they had not likely the value he placed on their house. As I wrote then:

This story began when Connolly and Mott asked Lanham (who is white) and his company, 20/20 Valuations, to appraise their house. When they were unhappy with his appraisal, they decided to get another appraisal, but this time do what they themselves called a ““whitewashing experiment.” For the second appraisal they removed all evidence that a black family owned the house, to the extent of having a white friend present himself as the owner instead. The second appraisal, done months later, came up with a higher price.

Connolly and Mott then sued Lanham and 20/20 Valuations (lawsuit available here [pdf]), claiming he had violated their civil rights and demanding unstated compensatory and punitive damages. More significantly, Connolly and Mott then went on a public campaign claiming that blacks are discriminated against by white appraisers, and held Lanham up as their prime example. In interviews with the New York Times and ABC News both accused Lanham of racism and bigotry. The subsequent news stories, with these defamatory statements, were then picked up by numerous other media outlets.

Putting aside the simple fact that home real estate values can often change drastically over short time periods, and that the art of appraisal is an imperfect science that carries an enormous amount of uncertainty no matter what the circumstances, to accuse someone of racism based on this flimsy data is certainly mean-spirited and vicious. To do so in such a public way is plainly defamatory and a slander. Lanham has a strong case.

Lanham then countersued for defamation. noting this very pertinent fact:

In making their baseless attack, Dr. Connolly and Dr. Mott failed to disclose the sale of the similar house next door to their home that sold only a month after Mr. Lanham and 20/20 Valuations’ appraisal for $7,000 less than the amount of the appraisal, validating Mr. Lanham and 20/20 Valuations’ appraisal.

The judge’s ruling last week means that Lanham’s countersuit can go forward, which is requesting, at a minimum, $250K in compensatory damages and $250K in punitive damages.