And they dismissed it because the statute of limitations passed.

Both parties had rather extensive legal fees I would imagine. The attorneys surely made out handsomely though

... blanking a used computer he's selling.

There are so many holes in the shop's story it's laughable -
1 - Where is the repair invoice with Hunter's signature and the S/N of the laptop? Nobody just drops a laptop off without a repair invoice, and the signature is needed to protect the shop from liability. Plus, the invoice will list what needs to be done and the contact number. That invoice does not exist.

2 - What was the computer in the shop for?

3 - Does the laptop S/N trace back to Hunter - thus proving ownership? So far, no one has traced the serial number. Where is that laptop / hard drive?

4 - Why would a person on one side of the country drop off a laptop to be repaired, on the other side? Or even out of the city? Hunter has plenty of repair shops where he lives, and he could always send it off to Apple.

5 - Any computer repair shop knows to not look at content, and for sure, to not offer that content to third parties. Just saying it contained sensitive corporate information, and it got out, the shop would get sued big time.

I think this is what happened:
Some GOPer broke into Hunter's iCloud account and downloaded the contents. They got this shop to play ball with them (bribe) - find a Mac laptop, set it up as if Hunter owned it, and load the data, plus additions, to it. The problem is the data was compromised - the idiots did not know that data is date tagged, so they got caught modding Hunter's files, and there were more additions as the laptop was passed around (chain of custody) but they went ahead with the smear campaign anyway and it fizzled when they got caught.

I think Hunter still has a case against the shop. And he should drag that dork into deposition and make him give up his contacts. That's the part Repubs are trying to hide - who got in touch with the shop owner to try to pull off this scam? And that is why the court said Hunter does not have a case - to try to prevent the people involved from being outed..