Fired Lab Assistant Loses Defamation Lawsuit against Her Supervisor

Case: A lab assistant fired for poor performance claimed that her supervisor committed defamation by making the following oral remarks: “We’re letting you go because we feel you’re not a good fit for the lab”; and “You didn’t do anything wrong, but you were slow and not keeping up with your work.” The federal court tossed her case. Even if the remarks were defamatory, you can’t have defamation without publication and there was no allegation the supervisor published the remarks or that any third person heard them. Significance: The assistant’s second defamation claim, which the court also dismissed, pointed to the written statements containing those same remarks made by the supervisor for the HR files. But while being in writing satisfied the publication requirement, the written statements were protected by qualified privilege because they were part of the termination process and accessible only to those with a legitimate interest or role in that process [Nedrick v. Southside Reg’l Med. Ctr., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20337, 2020 WL 534052].