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Can You Be Sued for What You Write in a Letter

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  • 05-16-2014, 01:35 PM
    Welfarelvr
    Re: Over a Letter
    Quote:

    Quoting LawResearcherMissy
    View Post
    No, she's right. You're seriously lacking in clue.

    Writing a letter to a company to tell them they suck is not publication to a third party, any more than writing a letter to you to tell you that you suck is publication to a third party.

    It's time for you to be quiet on this topic, because you have no idea what you're talking about.

    JasonJ, the answer to your question of "Can they sue" is "Yes, they can sue." You can be sued because your neighbor doesn't like the color of your house. You can be sued because your bank teller hates your shoes. Anyone can sue anyone for anything. All "sue" means is "ask the courts to settle an argument".

    You're asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking is "Can they win?", and the answer to that is NO.

    It's not defamation to tell a company what you think of them.

    Perhaps you should do some of that Law Research and find a cite. As I already have. If you are in a law office, pick up a Hornbook and see the black letter law on the matter. Since the law has been that way from the turn of the century, I don't see any modern cases easily accessible. With your skills, I'm sure you can come up with something.

    The company is not the person. An employee of the company is not the company. Say I go to a person and call them a stinkyhead and did not know anyone else is around. But, just as I said it the parish priest entered the room and he hates stinkyheads and excommunicates the person. Did I publish the defamatory term? (Assume it is false and defamatory etc. We're talking about publication.) Say I put an unsealed envelope on stinkyheads desk and someone else comes in and reads it, was it published? Let's say the OP calls the corporation stinkyheads and the employee reading the letter shows it to the press who publishes it without authorization. Who are the publishers, just the press and employee or also the OP?

    Now, I agree the priest issue is one that is closer as accidental or non-negligent publication is not one that generally leads to liability. There, words spoken with no reason to suppose that anyone but the plaintiff would overhear them, or a sealed letter sent to the plaintiff himself which is unexpectedly opened and read by another would not be either. Note "unexpectedly". The person the letter would be sent to in this case IS NOT THE CORPORATION. He might be an employee of the corp, or an agent of the corp, but it is not the corp. There is publication.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote:

    Quoting quincy
    View Post
    First in answer to your title question: Yes, you can be sued for what you write in a letter. But you would not be sued for "slander." Slander is the oral or spoken form of defamation. Libel is its written form.

    That said, unless in the private letter to the company you singled out a specific person or specific people as being unethical or corrupt, the private letter to the company could not be the basis of a successful defamation claim. You have caused no harm to the reputation of the company.

    The lack of harm is a separate question and I have already mentioned that repeatedly. However, say there are damages. Was the letter to the company published?
  • 05-16-2014, 01:41 PM
    jk
    Re: Can You Be Sued for What You Write in a Letter
    suggesting that a company can actually read its own mail and by allowing or directing the ceo or other employee of the company to read the company's mail amounts to publishing it is just downright funny.

    shame on the company for making the ceo read its mail.

    bad company. shame, shame, shame
  • 05-16-2014, 01:43 PM
    aardvarc
    Re: Over a Letter
    No, the letter to the company was NOT published. It was sent to THE COMPANY. The employee opening the mail, the person who carts it around the building, and the CEO or any OTHER employee who reads it all have one thing in common: the ARE "the company". There is NO publication here. Any more than if I write you a letter and your wife opens it. It wasn't PUBLISHED to her, either, even though as your spouse she's technically a separate person.
  • 05-16-2014, 02:08 PM
    Welfarelvr
    Re: Over a Letter
    Quote:

    Quoting aardvarc
    View Post
    No, the letter to the company was NOT published. It was sent to THE COMPANY. The employee opening the mail, the person who carts it around the building, and the CEO or any OTHER employee who reads it all have one thing in common: the ARE "the company". There is NO publication here. Any more than if I write you a letter and your wife opens it. It wasn't PUBLISHED to her, either, even though as your spouse she's technically a separate person.

    The sealed letter to me and my wife opens it, I agree. If you gave an opened envelope to my wife for me, no.

    Wenman v. Ash, 1853 13 C.B. 836
    Tgeaker v. Richardson, 1962 1 All Eng. 229
    Schenck v. Schenck, 1843 20 N.J.L. 208
    Luick V. Driscoll, 1895, 13 Ind.App. 279
    Bonkowski v. Arlan's Department Store, 1970, 383 Mich. 90

    You see that "technically" a separate person is more than a mere technicality. It is a legal truth. A wife is not her husband.

    If the employees ARE "the company" can someone steal from themselves? Or, is the company "technically" separate from the employee?

    ------------------------
    The closest issue I can see here in modern HI law is through the concept of "self-publication".

    When a person communicates defamatory statements only to the person defamed, who then repeats the statements to others, the publication of the statements by the person defamed will not support a defamation action against the originator of the statements. I suppose that is what is being argued here. The corporation has "self-published" the letter it received by turning it over to a person to read. Some minority of states (Not Hawaii) have created an exception when the plaintiff is effectively compelled to publish the defamatory material.

    Gonsalves v. Nissan Motor in Hawaii, 58 P.3d 1196, (Haw: Supreme Court 2002)

    While we can compare and contrast that, I don't think anyone can legitimately argue there was no publication.

    ------------------------
    Even with a sealed letter, there has been liability found if the defendant knows, or should know, that plaintiff's spouse or secretary is in the habit of reading plaintiff's mail, or in the circumstances would likely read it, and the words are in fact read by such person.
    Rumney v. Worthley, 186 Mass. 144 (1904)
    Roberts v. English Mfg. Co., 155 Ala. 414 (1908)
    Theaker v. Richardson [1962], 1 All E.R. 229
  • 05-16-2014, 02:33 PM
    aardvarc
    Re: Over a Letter
    We HAVE legitimately argued such. Re-read what it means "to publish". Writing a letter ABOUT a company TO the company, or it's agents, isn't publication.
  • 05-16-2014, 02:35 PM
    jk
    Re: Over a Letter
    Quote:

    Quoting aardvarc
    View Post
    We HAVE legitimately argued such. Re-read what it means "to publish". Writing a letter ABOUT a company TO the company, or it's agents, isn't publication.


    (psssst, he doesn't stop even when you have proven him to be wrong. In fact, even if he admits he is wrong he may still argue he is right)
  • 05-16-2014, 02:47 PM
    Welfarelvr
    Re: Can You Be Sued for What You Write in a Letter
    Quote:

    Quoting jk
    View Post
    suggesting that a company can actually read its own mail and by allowing or directing the ceo or other employee of the company to read the company's mail amounts to publishing it is just downright funny.

    shame on the company for making the ceo read its mail.

    bad company. shame, shame, shame

    Just can't ignore me, can you? The best part was how you tried in some other threads to reply without really replying. Yet, the structure of the response followed my own. Good times indeed.

    Quote:

    (psssst, he doesn't stop even when you have proven him to be wrong. In fact, even if he admits he is wrong he may still argue he is right)
    It is especially funny when people who just say things without citations consider themselves to have "proved" me wrong. Even though I'm the only one making legal arguments.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote:

    Quoting aardvarc
    View Post
    We HAVE legitimately argued such. Re-read what it means "to publish". Writing a letter ABOUT a company TO the company, or it's agents, isn't publication.

    Sorry, wrong again. Please read the thread from the beginning. Publishing to agents IS publication.

    There are some links on Google if you seek the previously cited:
    Brown V. Elm City Lumber Co., 1914, 167 N.C. 9, 82 S.E. 961

    http://goo.gl/0B5ugw (Will take you to the old case.)
  • 05-16-2014, 04:29 PM
    LawResearcherMissy
    Re: Can You Be Sued for What You Write in a Letter
    What part of "It's time for you to be quiet on this topic because you have no idea what you're talking about" was unclear to you?

    Out you go.
  • 05-16-2014, 08:14 PM
    aardvarc
    Re: Can You Be Sued for What You Write in a Letter
    I don't care HOW many cites one cares to throw up - if they're INACCURATE or INAPPLICABLE....'nuff said. =)
  • 05-16-2014, 08:47 PM
    Bubba Jimmy
    Re: Over a Letter
    Quote:

    Quoting LawResearcherMissy
    View Post
    No, she's right. You're seriously lacking in clue.

    Not only that, he sounds like a torts class flunk-out. I can't imagine a more convoluted interpretation of a legal principle than this topic. Let's hope he's not actually a lawyer that gives people real advice based on his misunderstanding of his Posner hornbook.
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