QUESTION
Do I have grounds to sue my current employer for defamation or slander if myself and two others heard her call me a "motherf@cker"?
Asked on Sep 04th, 2011 on Business Law - Connecticut
More details to this question:
I had been physically sick all day prior to my shift (which began at 6 pm). I work directly in the food service industry, and when it was 1 pm, I called to ask my boss if there was anyone that could cover my shift. She told me to call around to the sister locations to see if anyone could come in for me. Upontdiscovering no one could cover my shift and I would have to go in, I explained that I hadn''t been able to keep any liquids or food down all day. At the close of this phone conversation, my boss thought she hung her phone up, but it wasn''t. She then proceeded to call me out of my name several times, and go on to say how i was playing sick to avoid work. This rant was heard by myself and 2 others because my boss was on speaker phone the entire time. Are these grounds for legal help??
1 ANSWER
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In a word, no. Generally speaking, unless you have actually suffered harm to your reputation, you cannot collect damages for defamation. The relatively ambiguous epithet that was used to describe you would almost certainly not be understood to mean that you employer suggested that you were engaging in sexual relations with your mother. Rather, a reasonable person in the position of the listener would understand that your boss was simply angry about your failure to report for work as scheduled.
Answered on Sep 05th, 2011 at 10:01 AM