Case ID: so2d_469/html/0141-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

William G. BELL, Appellant, v. Daniel G. GELLERT, Appellee.
    No. 83-1604.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
    Jan. 22, 1985.
    See also, Fla.App., 370 So.2d 802, 431 So.2d 329, 438 So.2d 923.
    Thornton, David & Murray and Barry L. Davis and Carolyn A. Pickard and Kathleen O’Connor, Miami, for appellant.
    Daniel Gonzales Gellert, in pro. per.
    Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and HUB-BART and JORGENSON, JJ..
   PER CURIAM.

We affirm the final summary judgment entered below in favor of the defamation defendant Daniel G. Gellert based on the following, briefly stated, legal analysis. First, a defamation action arising out of a labor grievance complaint filed by an airline pilot against his airline employer, as here, may be maintained in a state court and is not pre-empted by the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-188 (1976). See Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 394 U.S. 369, 89 S.Ct. 1109, 22 L.Ed.2d 344 (1969); Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers of America, 383 U.S. 53, 86 S.Ct. 657, 15 L.Ed.2d 582 (1966). Second, the defamatory statements sued upon are absolutely privileged because they (a) are contained in the above-stated labor grievance complaint, (b) are relevant for defamation law purposes to the labor grievance complaint, W. Prosser & W.P. Keeton, The Law of Torts § 114, at 818 (5th ed. 1984); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 587 comment c (1977), and (c) are, therefore subject to an absolute privilege based on the better-reasoned authority in the country. Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 585 comment c, 587 comment f (1977); Annot., 60 A.L.R.3d 1041, 1053-54 (1974).

Affirmed.