By Matthew Santoni

Law360 (April 14, 2020, 6:41 PM EDT) -- A Philadelphia attorney said he was falsely accused of making racist remarks when he confronted a jogger for not following social-distancing recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to a defamation lawsuit he filed in state court.

Josiah Knapp, who owns a boutique firm focused on business and real estate law, claimed Tess Wei and Peter Chau defamed him on social media when they claimed he threatened to cough on Wei and made racist statements when he got into an argument with her over allegedly failing to give him space as she jogged past him in Center City late last month.

"As a result of Wei's and Chau's false and defamatory statements, Knapp was forced to defend his previously esteemed reputation in both his personal and professional community and among his friends, business associates, and clients," the complaint said. "Knapp is not a bigot; he did not engage in the highly offensive behavior of which he is accused by Wei and Chau; and he did not utter the racially-charged and offensive statement attributed to him by Chau."

The complaint, filed April 9 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and made public Monday, made claims of defamation and false light against Wei and Chau.

Knapp's suit said he had been walking on Walnut Street the afternoon of March 31 when he saw Wei jogging toward him. Mindful of the social distancing guidelines recommending six feet of space between people to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Knapp said he moved to one side to let her pass, but she came within two or three feet and was breathing heavily as she went by.

"After Wei passed, Knapp remarked that Wei should move to the other side of the sidewalk to give some space," the complaint said. An argument followed, with Wei allegedly asking if Knapp was afraid she'd breathe on him, threatening to breathe on him, then taking out her phone and recording him as he walked away, the suit said.

According to the suit, Wei posted the video she took of the encounter to Instagram with text superimposed over it that said "PHILLY! This man yelled at me and then came right up to me and coughed in my face. who tf is he?"

Knapp said Chau, who said he was Wei's cousin, shared the post on his own Instagram account, which is how an acquaintance of Knapp's saw it and brought it to his attention.

Chau's post also claimed Knapp coughed on Wei, and added that he allegedly told Wei to "go back where you came from."

Knapp said the captions falsely claimed that he sought Wei out because of her Asian-American background and engaged in racist and offensive behavior, which he denied.

"Both the action and the statement attributed to Knapp by Chau in the second offending post ... are categorically untrue and Chau's statements about Knapp are defamatory," the complaint said. "Knapp did not cough on Wei, and did not tell her to 'go back to where you came from.'"

The suit said Wei's post was immediately shared with at least her 1,055 followers on Instagram, though her account was private and unable to be viewed by users she had not approved as followers as of Tuesday, and was then viewable by Chau's nearly 400 followers when he shared it through his account.

After that, Knapp said, Wei's post was allegedly shared on Facebook through at least two members-only groups devoted to South Philadelphia and the Old City neighborhood, where the post picked up even more views and was shared to some members' public pages. Comments on the posts identified Knapp and his law firm by name, the suit said.

"In the days that followed, Knapp received multiple telephone calls and text messages from friends and clients of his law practice who reported that they viewed the second offending post and the original offending post and read the defamatory statements attributed to him therein," the complaint said. "Knapp suffered special harm as a result of Wei's and Chau's defamatory statements in that they have harmed Knapp's reputation by lowering him in the estimation of his community, business associates, and clients."

The suit demands that Wei and Chau do everything they can to remove the posts, which allegedly continued to circulate and damage Knapp's reputation.

"The reputational harm injury that Knapp continues to sustain while the second offending post and the original offending post continue to be visible and circulate on social media cannot be adequately compensated by money damages alone due to its ongoing nature and the possibility of continued publication and viewing by innumerable other persons," the complaint said. "Greater harm will result to Knapp than will befall Wei and Chau if they are not required to take all reasonable steps to remove the second offending post and original offending post from social media and take affirmative steps to correct the record."

The suit also said the posts falsely portray him as racist toward Asian-Americans at a time when discrimination toward them is elevated because of the COVID-19 pandemic's apparent origins in China.

Wei, Chau and counsel for Knapp did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Knapp is represented by Vincent N. Barbera of White & Williams LLP.

Counsel information was not immediately available for Wei and Chau.

The case is Knapp v. Wei et al., case number 200400373, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

--Editing by Adam LoBelia.

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