QUESTION
Do I have a defamation case against a municipal customer and two of their employees? I own a company that supplies equipment to municipal organizations
Asked on Sep 29th, 2011 on Business Law - North Carolina
More details to this question:
We recently bid on equipment for that customer and although we were not lowest bid, the board voted 5 to 1 to go with our product. This mostly due to the past service and quality. Unfortunately there are two employees that are trying to get the council to change this vote. One of the employees of the county has contacted a current customer and asked about their experience with us and our product. The customer told them (and I have it in writing) that with the exception of one current issue they have been very happy. The customer that is trying to get it changed went back to some of the board members and told them that that other customer was not happy at all and then told the current customer that they are having quality issues also.I have checked and this is a lie. Today I find out that another employee is trying to change minds by telling people our contract was canceled by that current customer which is a lie. Basically trying to make us look bad to change minds.
1 ANSWER
Reviews not shown
1 Award
As a general matter, an employee of a legal entity (such as an officer of a corporation) and the entity itself are indistinguishable for defamation purposes. In other words, if an employee makes false statements about you to his employer, the statements will fail to qualify as defamatory because there is no third party to whom the statements are deemed to have been communicated -- the wrongdoer and the recipient of the statement are the same.
That does not mean that you have no claim against the employee, if that employee is willfully communicating statements about you to his government employer that he knows to be false -- but your remedy may be under some other principle than the laws of defamation. You should consult an attorney to see whether such claims are permitted in your state.
Answered on Sep 29th, 2011 at 3:30 PM