California Appellate Tracker

Charney v. Standard General, L.P.

March 30, 2017

Employer’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly granted in response to terminated CEO’s defamation claim, since the allegedly defamatory press release stated only that a third party investigation of allegations against the CEO had been undertaken and that he was terminated as a result of that investigation.

A terminated CEO failed to establish he had a probability of succeeding on his defamation claim against his former employer. The press release about his termination, which the CEO claimed defamed him, stated only that a third party investigation of allegations against the CEO had been undertaken and that he was terminated as a result of that investigation. Whether or not the investigation was conducted by a truly independent third party, the statement that it had been could not be defamatory because it said nothing about the CEO. Also, whether the investigator was truly independent and a third party were matters of opinion, not provable fact. Since the press release did not identify any conduct for which the CEO was terminated, it also could not have defamed him by claiming he committed criminal conduct or violated any other applicable standards of conduct. Consequently, the employer’s Anti-SLAPP motion was properly granted.

California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 5 (Kumar, J., sitting by assignment); March 28, 2017; 2017 WL 1155698

Subscribe to California Appellate Tracker

Thank you for your desire to subscribe to Severson & Werson’s Appellate Tracker Weblog. In order to subscribe, you must provide a valid name and e-mail address. This too will be retained on our server. When you push the “subscribe button”, we will send an electronic mail to the address that you provided asking you to confirm your subscription to our Weblog. By pushing the “subscribe button”, you represent and warrant that you are over the age of 18 years old, are the owner/authorized user of that e-mail address, and are entitled to receive e-mails at that address. Our weblog will retain your name and e-mail address on its server, or the server of its web host. However, we won’t share any of this information with anyone except the Firm’s employees and contractors, except under certain extraordinary circumstances described on our Privacy Policy and (About The Consumer Finance Blog/About the Appellate Tracker Weblog) Page. NOTICE AND AGREEMENT REGARDING E-MAILS AND CALLS/TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND-LINE AND WIRELESS TELEPHONES: By providing your contact information and confirming your subscription in response to the initial e-mail that we send you, you agree to receive e-mail messages from Severson & Werson from time-to-time and understand and agree that such messages are or may be sent by means of automated dialing technology. If you have your email forwarded to other electronic media, including text messages and cellular telephone by way of VoIP, internet, social media, or otherwise, you agree to receive my messages in that way. This may result in charges to you. Your agreement and consent also extend to any other agents, affiliates, or entities to whom our communications are forwarded. You agree that you will notify Severson & Werson in writing if you revoke this agreement and that your revocation will not be effective until you notify Severson & Werson in writing. You understand and agree that you will afford Severson & Werson a reasonable time to unsubscribe you from the website, that the ability to do so depends on Severson & Werson’s press of business and access to the weblog, and that you may still receive one or more emails or communications from weblog until we are able to unsubscribe you.

I Agree

Effective, Experienced, Exceptional.

California Appellate Tracker

Charney v. Standard General, L.P.

Categories

San Francisco

Severson & Werson

Orange County

Severson & Werson