Judge dismisses domain auction lawsuit, but it’s far from settled

Judge dismisses case after plaintiffs don’t show up to hearing, but the plaintiffs filed a new case.

A lawsuit involving the failed auction of bird.com and fish.com this year was recently dismissed, only for the plaintiffs to refile the lawsuit days later.

Right of the Dot and Bolten Properties (owner of the domains) sued David Lizmi in April, alleging that he was the winning bidder for bird.com and fish.com in an auction in February but didn’t pay. Lizmi bid $2.5 million for Bird.com and $1.6 million for Fish.com. Lizmi argued that he received outbid notices on the domains and was not a winning bidder. Lizmi also sold domains in the auction, and Right of the Dot is still holding about $58,000 in funds from those domains.

An online hearing in the case was scheduled for September 27, but no one representing the plaintiffs showed up. Lizmi, who is defending himself, was at the hearing. So the judge dismissed the case that day, publishing the dismissal to the docket the morning of September 29.

Any thought that the dispute was resolved was short-lived, however. Later on the afternoon of September 29, the plaintiffs filed a nearly identical lawsuit in the same court. A recent court document shows that the plaintiffs are serving Lizmi in the new lawsuit.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.