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September 23, 2004

Spanos v. Quixtar, Inc. et al.

By QBlog in

What is Spanos v. Quixtar?
Until yesterday I would have had to answer that question with a shrug. Like you, the only Spanos I was familiar with was real estate tycoon (and owner of the San Diego Chargers) Alex G. Spanos. However, while scanning the search logs of this blog I discovered something strange and quite interesting.

On September 15, beginning at around 9 a.m. EDT, this blog received an odd series of search requests. As you can see below, the search requests are exceptionally long and detailed. Knowing a little bit about the Web and search engines (of various types) I realized that whoever executed those searches wasn't really "searching" for information but was cleverly trying to leave me a message.

  1. Search: query for 'goetschel'
  2. Search: query for 'private attorney general lawsuit california'
  3. Search: query for 'orange county california case # 04CC00068 complex case division lawsuit for permanent injunction'
  4. Search: query for 'private attorney general lawsuit orange county california case # 04CC00068 Complex Case Division of Orange County Superior Court Defendants Quixtar Internet Services Corporation, Charles and Colleen Goetschel PDP Inc. for Permanent Inju
  5. Search: query for 'private attorney general lawsuit Susan Spanos suing on behalf of the General Public vs. Defendants Quixtar, Internet Services Corporation, Charles and Colleen Goetschel, PDP, Inc. for Permanent Injunction prohibiting Defendants from ope
  6. Search: query for 'Susan Spanos suing on behalf of the General Public of Calfiornia vs. Quixtar et al. court decision denying Quixtar's motion to compel arbitration '
  7. Search: query for 'Spanos vs. Quixtar, et al. Case # 04CC00068 Complex Division of the Orange County Superior Court, Defendants Notice of Appeal from the judge's order denying motion to compel arbitration, notice of appeal'
  8. Search: query for 'Lawsuit in California suing to protect the public from Quixtar's unfair business practices, false advertising, fraud, false income claims'

Somebody obviously wanted me to know about the Spanos v. Quixtar case for whatever reason. What was that reason? Well, I can only speculate but you better believe I checked this out and the case is public record according to the California Courts Web site.

Seriously, What is Spanos v. Quixtar?
I asked my friend lawDawg (of lawBlawg) to give me a "lawyer's summary" of the Spanos v. Quixtar case. Here's his brief analysis based on the public records.

The best I can gather is that the Spanos v. Quixtar lawsuit in Orange County, California is based on claims that Quixtar and Chuck Goetschel have violated California's consumer protection laws.

Quixtar apparently (as it always does) tried to move to compel the dispute to arbitration under the BSMAA.

But California apparently has a statute that allows private citizens to sue on behalf of the State of California or the Attorney General of California.

So Spanos successfully argued (so far) that since it is the State suing, and not an IBO, the arbitration agreement doesn't apply.

Quixtar appealed the decision to the California Court of Appeals, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three.

What's really interesting about this case is that Spanos apparently found a way around the BSMAA arbitration requirements. Very clever. But will this tactic prove successful? Well, I guess that's why they're in court.

There's an email update feature at the California Courts site where you can sign up to receive alerts whenever something happens in the appeal. And now you know about Spanos v. Quixtar and knowing is half the battle.

Comments (6) TrackBack (0)

Comments  

Do you know if that lady is related to the team owner?

Posted by: ex-dd | September 23, 2004 3:42 PM

I dunno if she is, but the firm is Theodore G. Spanos, Spanos and Assoc. Team owne is Alex...maybe somebody local knows what, if any, connection exists.

Posted by: CK | September 23, 2004 6:19 PM

Here are the defendants then: http://www.ethnicarts.org/chuckgoetschel/

Posted by: Imran Aziz | September 23, 2004 6:39 PM

Alex Spanos spoke at a major function of Dexters about 2 years ago.I got his book as a book of the month.Maybe their fighting over the tool money or becuase Quixtar got involved some how.

Posted by: Ray | September 23, 2004 8:24 PM

Someone sent you a hidden message using your search query?! Holy crap that's cool!!

Posted by: Your Boy Fleak | September 24, 2004 7:02 AM

Case Name: SPANOS VS QUIXTAR INC
Plaintiff: SPANOS, SUSAN E.
Defendant: GOETSCHEL, CHARLES T.
GOETSCHEL, COLLEEN
INTERNET SERVICES CORPORATION
PDP INC
QUIXTAR INC
UDALL, DOUGLAS B.
Filing Date: 2/2/2004
Case Number: 04CC00068
Court: ORANGE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT
Filing Type: CIVIL
County: ORANGE COUNTY
State: CALIFORNIA

Posted by: Fred | September 25, 2004 1:15 AM





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