Munger, Tolles & Olson secured an appellate victory for Snap Inc. when the California Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the dismissal of four school districts’ lawsuits against Snap and other major social media companies. The November 5, 2026 opinion rejected negligence and public nuisance claims alleging that the companies’ platforms contributed to a youth mental health crisis and disrupted the districts’ educational missions.
The school districts—located in San Diego, California; Vancouver, Washington; Brevard County, Florida and West Warwick, Rhode Island—alleged that addictive platform features harmed students’ mental health, forcing schools to divert staff time and increase spending on mental health services. The Court of Appeal held that the economic loss rule barred the negligence claims seeking recovery for those increased operational costs. It also held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shielded the companies from liability for property damage claims based on third-party videos encouraging students to vandalize school property.
The court rejected the public nuisance claims on grounds that varied by district, including lack of standing, insufficient allegations of harm to an entire community and failure to establish a legally recognized public right to education under nuisance law. The decision leaves intact the dismissal of all four complaints.
The MTO team included Partners Jonathan Blavin and Victoria Degtyareva and Associates Stephany Reaves, Carson Scott and Garrett Solberg.
The decision received media coverage in Bloomberg Law and Courthouse News Service.
