Are you telling Company A that you believe they are unethical and corrupt?
Or are you telling Company B that you believe Company A is unethical and corrupt?
Are you telling Company A that you believe they are unethical and corrupt?
Or are you telling Company B that you believe Company A is unethical and corrupt?
That is not defamation, then.
The legal issue is publication. It is clear the "corporation" is not a person. The person who reads is a person and I think publication would be made.
Pretend the OP had some lie that would cause all the employees to quit, causing the corporation damages. I believe the letter would fulfill the publication to a third party element of defamation. Even though the letter was sent to the corporation. Even though the corporation designated the person to read it.
Not a lot of case law on the matter. But, the key here is damages, not publication.
No, the key here is whether the elements of defamation have been met. They have not been met if the only entity he makes the statement to is the entity itself.
It is questionable if they would have been met even if there had been a third party since he is expressing an opinion, but if only one entity is involved defamation and all its variants are right off the table.
OP, if you are doing this because you are a disgruntled employee of Company A, please keep in mind that Company A will be legally free to share the contents of your letter with any future prospective employers of yours.
One of the elements of defamation is publication. An agent of a person is not the person. From an old Prosser on Torts:
Calling a person unethical and corrupt, while an opinion, assumes actual facts. While it would certainly be argued that the OP was only expressing an opinion, unless it did not refer to anything else more specific, it would be considered defamatory and not mere opinion. If it was simply saying "unethical and corrupt" (As in "corporation is a stinkyhead".) then the corp would really, really not care and there would be nothing even resembling damages.There may be publication to any third person. It may be made to a member of the plaintiff's family, including his wife, or to the plaintiff's agent or employee. It may be made to the defendant's own agent, employee or officer, even where the defendant is a corporation. The dictation of defamatory matter to a stenographer generally is regarded as sufficient publication, althoug it may be privileged. A few courts, with a tendency to confuse the question of publication with that of privilege, have held that it is not, regarding dictation as an indespensable method in modern business transactions, and therefore merely equivalent to the defendant's own writing.
A good argument for the OP might be the corporation is "public" by its nature and they would need to prove actual malice under New York Times v. Sullivan to win. That would be hard if the OP was simply writing to the corporation on what he felt to be a matter of public concern.
OP feels that the company is unethical and corrupt. He writes a letter to the CEO of the company telling him that the company is unethical and corrupt.
Where is the publication?