Horizon Group Management is a Chicago-based real estate firm and they’re suing one of their tenant Amanda Bonnen for tweeting @abonnen (now defunct), “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

The offending tweet

Filed at Cook County Circuit Court on Monday, they claim in their lawsuit that Bonnen had harmed its reputation by sending the Tweet out to her 20 or so followers.

They’re suing her for $50,000 and says, “The statements are obviously false, and it’s our intention to prove that. We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.”

Absolutely out of this world right. Some might say Amanda committed libel, but then again we do have free speech. The reality firm could have looked into the matter first, or asked Amanda to remove the post, but they decided to file a defamation suit instead.

I think the company have done more damage now with their reputation, with their sue first, talk later stance. This topic is all over Twitter now, and the damage control is beyond what the realty company will come to expect now.