LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a home inspector who’d sued a Seward real estate agent and her company over an email that he says she sent to more than 400 people, calling him a “total idiots.”

Online court records say Judge Robert Otte last week granted a request by Shelly Nitz, Woods Brothers Realty and HomeServices of Nebraska to dismiss the action brought by Matthew Steinhausen in January 2012. He said the email was libelous and hurt his business. Their attorneys said the email was opinion protected by the First Amendment.

In his dismissal order, the judge says the email was a protected opinion that went only to people on a closed company list and says Steinhausen failed to prove the email was sent with actual malice.