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Move Inc. has kept its legal battle against CoStar Group and former Realtor.com employee James Kaminsky alive this week in an amended complaint that seeks to address gaps in its legal argument that caused Move’s allegations to be dismissed in October.
The case centers around the former Realtor.com News & Insights Editor James Kaminsky, who was laid off from the company in January.
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Move alleged in a lawsuit initially filed in July that after his dismissal, Kaminsky accessed Move-owned files, including News & Insights team salary and bonuses, an ongoing list of Realtor.com News & Insights stories, a “2022 or 2023” presentation on audience and revenue projections, and two other files with passwords to third-party subscriptions, WordPress instructions, and staff contact numbers, and used this information to boost competitor Homes.com’s performance.
The amended complaint filed on Tuesday, like its predecessor, includes six allegations Move Inc. is pursuing against CoStar. The two claims previously dismissed by Judge George H. Wu of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles were regarding alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.
The amended complaint reiterates the allegation that Move “incurred costs exceeding $5,000 as a result of Mr. Kaminsky’s unauthorized access to Move’s protected computer systems” and adds additional details regarding those damages.
The complaint explains that Move retained the services of a forensics expert to investigate the scope of Kaminsky’s access to Move’s documents and systems to determine what kind of damage he may have caused. The expert found Kaminsky had deleted “nearly a thousand electronic files from his Move laptop and deleted his entire browsing history, irretrievably destroying those files and data,” according to the complaint.
“The infiltration of Move’s internal systems disrupted and economically impacted the company, its personnel, and its business,” the complaint states. “Since the first day Mr. Kaminsky’s unauthorized digital presence was discovered in Move’s confidential business documents, Move employees, including some in management and executive positions, have had to devote some of their working hours to addressing, investigating and remedying that security breach. The investigation diverted those employees away from their regular business activities.”
Move further alleged that Kaminsky “spied” on confidential Move documents at least 37 times after being hired by CoStar and that his conduct was “within the scope of his employment by CoStar.”
The amended complaint also suggests that, despite CoStar asserting that Kaminsky did nothing wrong, the company has also failed to allow Move access to the computer that Kaminsky would have been using while allegedly retrieving Move’s data.
“Although CoStar insists that Mr. Kaminsky did nothing wrong, Defendants have thus far refused to produce Move the forensic images they made of Mr. Kaminsky’s CoStar-issued computing devices, which Mr. Kaminsky would have been using during the time he was unlawfully accessing Move’s confidential trade-secret information,” the amended complaint states.
Four out of the six claims in the lawsuit were levied against CoStar and Kaminsky regarding the misappropriation of trade secrets. The other two are directed at Kaminsky, alleging breach of contract and promissory fraud.
A spokesperson for Realtor.com told Inman in an email, “We have amended our complaint based on the judge’s guidance and are now moving ahead with all six of our original claims. We look forward to having our day in court.”
CoStar Group General Counsel Gene Boxer continued to assert that Move’s lawsuit is a “sham.”
“The court has already dismissed Move’s claims once and denied Move’s request for an injunction,” Boxer said in a statement emailed to Inman. “Move’s amended complaint does not fix the fundamental problems in its case and is just another transparent attempt to lash out at Homes.com, which has surpassed Move’s website in the marketplace.
“Agents love Homes.com, and its ‘your listing, your lead’ model,” Boxer continued. “Realtor.com’s approach of diverting leads is bad for agents, and bad for consumers. Move should focus on fixing its broken business model and spend its legal fees on defending the class action lawsuit that accuses Realtor.com of selling fake leads to brokers.”
Although Move has hit back for now, CoStar could still file a new motion to dismiss the amended complaint.
