Glass Home Manufacturers final week filed a defamation lawsuit towards Catalyst Hashish., its CEO Elliot Lewis, and co-founder and lawyer Damian Martin over their claims that Glass Home is “the largest black marketeer” of hashish in American historical past. The lawsuit additionally accuses Catalyst of violations of California’s Companies and Professions Code.
Glass Home’s lawsuit comes simply days after Catalyst filed a lawsuit accusing Glass Home of illegally diverting hashish merchandise, alleging the corporate “has change into one of many largest, if not the biggest, black entrepreneurs of hashish” within the state. That lawsuit adopted allegations on social media by Lewis and Martin that Glass Home was diverting “75% to 80%” of its merchandise into unregulated markets all through the U.S.
Within the lawsuit, Glass Home describes the Cayalyst co-founders’ social media posts as “a misguided and systematic defamatory social media marketing campaign falsely accusing Glass Home and its co-founders, Kyle Kazan and Graham Farrar, of being ‘the largest black marketeer in your entire American historical past,’ likening plaintiffs to a Mexican drug cartel.”
“Nothing could possibly be farther from the reality. Defendants made the statements with none proof, realizing them to be false or, on the very least, with reckless disregard for the reality. Counting on pure hypothesis, defendants assert their self-serving conclusion after which plead with governmental authorities and laws on the California Division of Hashish Management (DCC) to research Glass Home. Defendents then taunted plaintiffs by asserting their defamatory statements have to be true as a result of plaintiffs haven’t filed a defamation lawsuit. Sufficient is sufficient.” — Glass Home Manufacturers Inc. V. South Twine Holdings LLC, South Twine Administration LLC, Elliot Lewis, Damian Martin
Glass Home contends that the social media posts that includes the diversion claims by Lewis and Martin are “based mostly on misplaced anger and hostility,” asserting that the “social media rants clarify that they’re enraged by the present state of the hashish business and, particularly, their misguided perception” that they’re “unfairly shouldering the tax burden when it’s truly shared by all authorized industrial hashish operators, together with Glass Home.” The lawsuit contends that Catalyst possession is offended with a California legislation that diminished cultivation and wholesale taxes and that as a result of they’re one of many largest retailers within the state, they consider they’re “disproportionately impacted” by the legislation and have “skilled their anger and hostility on Glass Home and its co-founders despite the fact that Glass Home equally faces common competitors from illicit gross sales at decrease gross sales costs than the authorized market can bear.”
“Glass Home and its founders have accomplished issues the proper approach, working laborious to adjust to all regulatory requirements,” the corporate says within the lawsuit. “Certainly, since Glass Home commenced operations, it has taken each effort to totally adjust to all relevant state and native legal guidelines, ordinances, guidelines and laws pertaining to each side of its industrial hashish companies.”
The corporate additionally notes that, up to now, it has by no means been tagged for any violations by the state.
Glass Home contends that Catalyst is violating the state’s Companies and Professions Code with their claims as a result of the corporations are direct opponents and Lewis’ and Martin’s claims on social media are supposed to diminish the popularity of their agency.
“Whereas defendants Lewis and Martin have tried to craft their public picture and that of Catalyst to be seen as ‘for the individuals’ that ‘communicate fact to energy,’ the precise fact is much totally different than their manufactured narrative,” Glass Home says within the lawsuit. “Defendants will not be ‘for the individuals,’ however are motivated by their very own self-interest.”
Glass Home is searching for a jury trial, and asking for damages, an injunction towards additional defamatory feedback and the removing of social media posts that include defamatory feedback, and authorized charges.
In an Instagram post responding to the lawsuit, Lewis doubled down on his claims towards Glass Home and vowed to “proceed this combat.”
“This combat has at all times been about fact,” he stated, “and albeit, with the little Glass Home pile of shit, I wipe my ass with it and I need to thank Kyle and Graham for bringing it since you’ve opened up the invention floodgates.”
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