United States First Circuit

In a claim of libel and breach of severance benefits agreements against defendant Staples, Inc., grant of summary judgment for Staples is affirmed where: 1) company-wide e-mail accusing plaintiff of padding expense reports is substantially true; 2) Staples did not act with actual malice and thus did not forfeit its defense of truth; 3) no triable issue of material fact remains on Noonan's libel claim; and 4) under the plain terms of the severance agreement, plaintiff was fired for cause, as that term is specifically defined in that agreement.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/21/2008
• Published 08/21/2008

Judges

• Before LYNCH, Chief Judge,TORRUELLA, BOUDIN, WALLACE, LIPEZ, and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Wendy Sibbison, Greenfield, MA, Stamenia Tzouganatos, Daniel K. Gelb, Gail Kleven Gelb, Richard M. Gelb, Robert S. Messinger, Gelb & Gelb, LLP, Boston, MA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Ariel D. Cudkowicz, Krista G. Pratt, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP, Jennifer A. Serafyn, US Attorney's Office, Robert A. Bertsche, K. Kimberley Keyes, Jeffrey A. Newman, Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye, LLP, Elizabeth A. Ritvo, Brown, Rudnick, Berlack, Israels, LLP, James E. Smith, Smith, Ruddock & Hayes, Daniel J. Gleason, Nutter, McClennen & Fish, LLP, Eric Adam Brass, Boston, MA, George Freeman, New York Times Company, Indira Satyendra, John W. Zucker, Anthony Bongiorno, Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Litigation CBS Corporation, Beth Lobel, National Broadcasting Co., Inc., Charles J. Glasser, Bloomberg News, Robin Bierstedt, Stephanie S. Abrutyn, Peter Rienecker, Home Box Office, Christopher J. Nolan, Magazine Publishers of America, Inc., Jonathan Bloom, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Richard A. Bernstein, Advance Publications, Inc. c/o Sabin, Bermant & Gould, LLP, David H. Tomlin, The Associated Press, Jason P. Conti, Esq., Gail Gove, Mark H. Jackson, Jonathan Donnellan, Hearst Corporation, Allison Hoffman, Ronald D. Coleman, Goetz Fitzpatrick, LLP, Sandra S. Baron, Dave Heller, Dana Rosen, New York, NY, Johnita P. Due, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., Atlanta, GA, David Ardia, Harvard Law School Citizen Media Law Project, Cambridge, MA, Matthew Gray, Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., Birmingham, AL, Garrett Cummings, Gatehouse Media, Inc., Fairport, NY, Robert J. Ambrogi, Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, Rockport, MA, Peter J. Caruso, Caruso & Caruso, LLP, Andover, MA, Rene P. Milam, Newspaper Association of America, Lucy A. Dalglish, Jerald N. Fritz, Allbritton Communications Company, Arlington, VA, Laurie A. Babinski, Bruce D. Brown, Bruce W. Sanford, Baker & Hostetler, Richard Karpel, Executive Director Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, Denise B. Leary, National Public Radio, Inc., Joyce Slocum, National Public Radio, Inc., Ashley Messenger, US News & World Report, Eric N. Lieberman, James A. McLaughlin, Washington, DC, Sigmund D. Schutz, Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios, LLP, Portland, ME, Michael Dash, Entercom Communications Corp., Bala Cynwyd, PA, David Pahl, Espn, Inc., David Giles, E.W. Scripps Company, Cincinnati, OH, Ellen Rubin, Greater Media, Inc., Braintree, MA, S. Douglas Dodd, Doerner, Saunders, Daniel & Anderson, LLP, Tulsa, OK, Aaron Julien, Newspapers of New England, Inc., Concord, NH, Jennifer Borg, North Jersey Media Group Inc., Hackensack, NJ, Richard C. Gagliuso, Gagliuso & Gagliuso, PA, Merrimack, NH, Karen Flax, Tribune Company, Chicago, IL, Gregory V. Sullivan, Kathleen Sullivan, Malloy & Sullivan, Manchester, NH, for Defendant-Appellee.