Can You Be Defamed by a Truthful Email in Massachusetts?
By Dave Wieneke on Mar 12, 2009 in Email Marketing & Abuse, Featured, Free speech / censorship, Libel / slander, This can't be serious | comments(0)
“The truth is an absolute defense to a claim of defamation.” But perhaps not always in Massachusetts, and that’s a problem.
Judge Juan Torruella of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has allowed Alan Noonan, a sales director fired by Staples, to pursue his libel claim against the company.
Staples’s executive vice president, Jay Baitler, sent an email to some 1,500 employees stating that Noonan had been terminated for violating the company’s travel and expense policies. Noonan sued for defamation, and his case was initially dismissed because the defamation was a true statement.
However on appeal, Judge Torruella relied on a 1902 Massachusetts law.
“The defendant in an action for writing or for publishing a libel may introduce in evidence the truth of the matter contained in the publication charged as libellous; and the truth shall be a justification unless actual malice is proved”
Mass. Generals Laws, Chapter 231, Section 92