Dalzell Management Co., Inc. v. Bardonia Plaza, LLC, 923 F. Supp.2d 590 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 15, 2013)

Dalzell Management Co., Inc. v. Bardonia Plaza, LLC, 923 F. Supp.2d 590 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 15, 2013) (2nd Cir)

This is an interesting case where there are two lawsuits, one state and one federal, and the Defendants moved to dismiss the federal (alleging the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claim) based on the Colorado River Abstention Doctrine. The court denied the motion to dismiss. The allegations giving rise to the CFAA claim were given but the decision did not address the substantive merits of the CFAA claim. Plaintiff (a real estate management company) leased office space in Defendant’s building with a portion of the rent being a percentage of rents collected by Plaintiff. Defendant evicted Plaintiff and, during the process, had its IT staff copy data from Plaintiff’s computer system which included Plaintiff’s proprietary and confidential information as well as banking information. According to Plaintiff, Defendant did not have authorization to access its computer system which gave rise to the CFAA claim under (18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)) for unauthorized access to obtain information from a protected computer.