Lately, have you felt feverish, light-headed, even giddy? Well then you must have Oscar fever. The stars! The gowns! The teeth! My god, those blinding white teeth! For you, March 2, 2014, was a night of luxury, glamour, and take-out noodles because NO WAY you were cooking for the family and risk missing J-Law stumble over something walking down the red carpet. Adorbs!
So you probably didn’t notice that about two weeks earlier, some fellow named Andrew Greene filed a defamation lawsuit against Paramount Pictures in a New York federal court seeking more than $25 million in damages for his alleged depiction as Nicky “Rugrat” Koskoff in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” In the film the Koskoff character engages in sex, drugs, and other unsavory acts. Greene says the character is based on him and he wants Paramount to stop distribution of the film and pay him big bucks for the unfavorable portrayal.
Greene’s lawsuit, preposterous as it might be, reminds me that the unwary employer can walk into a costly defamation action by not appropriately handling an investigation or disciplinary action. The key is maintaining control of the messaging among its management team. Take the case of an employee who is terminated (or suspended, or investigated). A coworkers asks his manager, “Hey, why did so-and-so get fired?” The manager responds and describes why he thinks the employee was fired. If that reason turns out to be inaccurate or just plain false, the manager has defamed the employee. Worse, the company can be liable for the defamation under the theory of respondeat superior. In one oft-cited Illinois case, an employee won a $1.2 million judgment against his ex-employer because a few supervisors told people that the employee was fired for selling company property. That accusation against the ex-employee turned out to be false.
Employers must make sure that supervisors and managers understand how to discuss employee disciplines and investigations. The general rule is less is more. And if there are any questions, direct them to Human Resources. HR has a huge role to play here because they often take the lead in these matters. There is no shortage of allegations an ex-employee can make in a lawsuit against his former employer. A management team that can’t stay on message about sensitive matters only adds to the list.
