- On the merits: Walters sued OpenAI, LLC for defamation in Georgia state court.
- Procedure: OpenAI was moved to federal court, but ultimately sent back to state court, because it did not want to disclose all of its indirect members for diversity purposes. The rule in federal diversity cases is that an LLC (a limited liability company), unlike a corporation, inherits the citizenship of each of its members, each of the members of its members (if some members of the LLC are themselves LLC ), and so on, turtles all the way. Since OpenAI would not disclose all indirect members, it could not show a diversity of citizenship between itself and Walters (a citizen of Georgia).
- Proceedings on the Procedure: Walters then sought costs and fees for litigation on the motion to remove; “the district court denied the motion…without explanation.”
- Procedure on Procedure on Procedure: Walters then appealed, and the Eleventh Circuit simply remanded the proceeding on the grounds that “[w]without any explanation for his refusal of a request for compensation [and costs], it is impossible for us to discern the correctness of the district court’s ruling. It is necessary, therefore, to remand the case to the district court for an explanation.” (The opinion is by Judges Wilson, Jordan and Luck.)
As for the merits, we recall that the Georgia court of first instance rejected OpenAI’s motion to dismiss.
The post-minor decision on the third-order procedure in the case Walters v. OpenAI Large Libel Models first appeared on Reason.com.