Panel Issues Poetic Ruling for Union in ‘Crappy’ Limerick Dispute

An Illinois appeals court has ruled that a limerick penned by a union official did not constitute defamation in an opinion that opens with its own poetic turn.

The panel opinion (PDF) written by Judge John Bowman overturned a $2.35 million verdict for a suburban Chicago-area homebuilder who took issue with the characterization of his homes as “crappy,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

The court began its ruling this way:

There once was a union that called plaintiffs' work crappy;
This made plaintiffs quite unhappy;
At trial, the jury filled plaintiffs' purse;
But, alas, on appeal, we must reverse.

Homebuilder John Maki and his company, J. Maki Construction Co., sued the union for distributing this limerick on handbills:

There once was a man named Maki
Who didn’t want you to know his houses were crappy.
“If my homebuyer has windows that leak,
They won’t take a peek,
And see the whole house is crappy.”

They said the poem impugned their professional reputation and falsely implied that Maki had made the statement contained in quotation marks in the poem.

The appeals court ruled the limerick contained nonactionable statements of opinion. “We must now delve into the meaning of the word ‘crappy’—a dirty job for any court,” the ruling said. “In this case, the handbill's ‘crappy’ limerick was obviously used in a ‘loose, figurative sense,’ intending to demonstrate the union's disagreement with plaintiffs' failure to pay the area standards.”

Bowman was born in Oak Park, Ill., the birthplace of another famous writer.