United States First Circuit

In a suit against plaintiff's former employer-Staples arising after he was fired from his job for allegedly padding expense reports, and a Staples executive then sent a mass e-mail to about 1,500 employees informing them that plaintiff had been fired for violating the company's travel and expense policy, summary judgment for Staples is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) statements made in the e-mail were true; 2) nevertheless, there was a triable issue of fact as to whether the statements were made with "actual malice", which the court now concludes means "common-law malice"; 2) there was no triable issue of fact on a breach of stock options claim; and 3) a claim that defendant violated the severance agreement also failed. (Opinion on panel rehearing)

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/13/2009
• Published 02/13/2009

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.