From Creal v. Nasiri, decided Thursday by California Court of Appeal Justice Victor Viramontes, joined by Justices Maria Stratton and Elizabeth Grimes:
Creal is a certified public accountant (CPA). He has been a practicing CPA since 1978 and operates an accountancy firm in Torrance under the name Creal & Creal, An Accountancy Corporation. Creal’s business consists primarily of preparing individual tax returns, business tax returns, and litigation support….
Creal maintained a website for his firm for 20 years but did not generally advertise as most of his new clients were referrals from existing clients. While Creal’s firm had a webpage on Yelp, Creal did not create the page but merely confirmed with Yelp that the firm was his. He could not delete the Yelp page or modify any of the Yelp reviews. Creal believed newly referred clients would check Yelp for reviews….
In June 2015, Creal was retained as an expert by Nasiri’s ex-husband, Mohamadali Abolahrar, in the dissolution case between Abolahrar and Nasiri. Although originally retained as an expert, Creal also filed an amended tax return for Abolahrar after learning there was an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax credit for $65,000 for 2013. To claim the tax credit, Creal filed a married-filing-separately return for Abolahrar in March 2017, claiming half the credit for Abolahrar, believing the tax credit was a community property interest. Despite only claiming half the credit, the IRS refunded the entire amount to Abolahrar.
On October 26, 2017, Abolahrar’s family law attorney asked Creal to pick up Abolahrar’s laptop from Nasiri’s family law attorney, Nadine Jett. Creal went to Jett’s office and informed the receptionist that he was there for the laptop. While he waited in the reception area, Nasiri walked in and spoke to the receptionist. Creal did not interact with Nasiri in the office, and left once he received the laptop.
After Creal left Jett’s office, he noticed a Porsche parked in the parking area and believed it belonged to Nasiri. Believing the Porsche was a community property asset, Creal photographed the vehicle. As Creal was taking the photos, Nasiri came outside and told him, “‘You cannot do that.'” Creal replied, “‘Yes, I can. It’s in a public place.'” Creal noticed Nasiri had her cell phone camera pointed at him, so he took a picture of Nasiri.
On October 26, 2017, Nasiri posted a one-star review on Creal’s Yelp page.
The posting read: “I would give him zero if I could. My tax return was Manipulated and $69000 was refunded from IRS without my consent to my convicted felon ex husband who is out on bail. Which I heard Mr. Creal took 20% of that since he was the accountant. That’s fraud. He also has been the accountant for 2 businesses that I have interest in. He has been helping in creating unreported income for the two businesses and has been making a mess as a professional. This man followed me today to my attorney[‘]s office and I think he was damaging and touching my car. I stepped out and told him that he does not have a right to do so. Please see attached pictures. I also have full video. Later I found out he also was actually covering the cameras in order to hurt me. I made a police report and I will file a complaint. Just stay away from this man. And you will stay away from IRS investigations.”
Creal learned of the review …. He contacted Yelp to take down the review but Yelp refused because it appeared Nasiri had “consumer experience.” Creal knew he could reply to the review, but was concerned Nasiri would respond to his reply, exacerbating matters.
In the subsequent months, Nasiri made similar posts about Creal on the internet. In five of these posts, she included a redacted federal criminal judgment along with captions that read “Convicted felons for conspiracy and fraud.” In another post that included a photo of Creal on the day he had the interaction with Nasiri at Jett’s office, Nasiri claimed, “Creal is trying to [d]amage and touch my car.” Nasiri also posted comments about Creal on the website RipOff Report, stating Creal committed fraud, theft, and harassed Nasiri….
In December 2017, Creal retained an attorney to contact Nasiri and request that she remove the Yelp review. Creal wrote to Jett, demanding Nasiri remove the Yelp review. On January 10, 2018, Nasiri posted a redacted version of the letter on Yelp with a caption that read: “Hilarious, bullying me to hide the truth.” She posted again on January 22, 2018, claiming Creal hired “an attorney to harass” her. Creal did not respond to these posts, and directed his attorney to file a complaint.
In discovery obtained from Yelp, Creal learned that another negative review on his Yelp page posted by someone identified as “Pablo A” was connected to an e-mail address associated with a person who had worked for Nasiri. The post read: “I had a consultation with this firm. My friend referred me to Kenneth Creal. After two months he wanted 50% of the cash for the service to make everything ‘his way.’ I don’t really know why he has 4 people who gave him 5 stars they’re probably people who are related to him. I could just say he has a shady business and he’s very unethical.”
Creal was shocked when he saw Nasiri’s posts on Yelp because they were false and implied criminal conduct. Creal was particularly concerned about the posts that alleged criminal conduct, stating: “If people believe that, I’ve been in this community for 40 years. I was born in Hawthorne with the family businesses that we’ve had. I’m known in my church affiliations. I’m known by thousands of people. Anybody reading this wouldn’t touch me with a 10-foot pole. They wouldn’t come to me professionally. And understanding how the Internet works, this would be up on the Internet for the rest of my life.” Creal described the posts as “humiliating.” …
Nasiri admitted she wrote the October 26, 2017 Yelp review, as well as other posts on Yelp and Ripoff Report. She also admitted that she posted the pictures associated with those reviews. Nasiri admitted she never contracted with or personally hired Creal. While Nasiri maintained that Creal “manipulated” her tax return, she never produced the tax return that Creal allegedly manipulated. Nasiri claimed she heard Creal took a 20 percent fee but did not know one way or the other if he actually did or not. She also admitted that she did not investigate this claim before posting it. Nasiri never saw Creal damage her car, and gave conflicting testimony during discovery and at trial with respect to whether Creal touched or scratched her car. Nasiri never saw Creal at her home or work. Nasiri admitted the redacted federal criminal judgment she posted had nothing to do with Creal….
Nasiri’s appeal mostly related to the damages and fees awards, as well as some evidentiary sanctions based on the trial court’s findings of litigation misconduct; but the appellate court held in Creal’s favor.
David M. De Castro and Arthur D. Morrow (De Castro & Morrow) represent Creal.
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