Opinion ID: 482489
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Blacklisting as a tort:

Text: There is sharp controversy between the parties as to whether South Carolina in fact recognizes blacklisting as a cause of action separate and distinguishable from the tort of slander. From the case law the act of blacklisting in itself is not considered to be a tort under the law of South Carolina. Rhodes v. Granby Cotton Mills, 87 S.C. 18, 68 S.E. 824 (1910). In Parker v. Southeastern Haulers, 210 S.C. 18, 41 S.E.2d 387 (1947), the court said that, the majority of an able court [in Granby ] held that the blacklist was not illegal per se.... 210 S.C. at 28, 41 S.E.2d at 391, 392. Under both Granby and Parker, South Carolina law requires that, in order for blacklisting to constitute a tort, there must be some willful or malicious use of the blacklist, by one or a combination of the parties who prepared and used the blacklist, which willful or malicious use results in injury to the plaintiff. Thus, under these cases, the simple act of blacklisting is not a tort in South Carolina. Rather, to effectuate a recovery under a blacklisting theory, the plaintiff must prove that there was a blacklist, a combination of employers who exchanged the information contained on the blacklist, and a willful or malicious use of that blacklist by one or more of the members of the combination, with resultant injury to the plaintiff. See supra, Granby, 87 S.C. at 42-44, 68 S.E. at 833-4 (Woods, J., concurring). 1 No controversy exists about the fact that the two employers, speaking through Dowd and Love, did in fact exchange information concerning plaintiffs below which represented a blacklisting of those individuals. To the extent that Dowd accepted additional information about other former employees in addition to Glaser, as proffered by Love, that exchange of information covered all of the persons on the confidential information memorandum as set out and discussed supra. 2 The next question to be addressed, then, is whether the evidence below can sustain a finding of willful or malicious use of that blacklist with resultant injuries to the plaintiffs. First, the evidence at trial indicates that Dowd did not use the list's information at all. His testimony is that the list was never used by him in any way in evaluating any potential employee of Webb Forging. However, there is evidence that the blacklist was seen on Dowd's desk on one or more occasions, most particularly when the security guard saw the list on Dowd's desk and made a photocopy. If the jury chose to believe the testimony of the security guard and others that the list was seen on Dowd's desk, it would have weakened Dowd's testimony that he never referred to the list. However, it appears from the oral argument, the briefs, and the joint appendix that the plaintiffs do not assert a willful or malicious motive on Dowd's part in making the list. Rather, plaintiffs focus on Love; they assert that there was ample evidence from which the jury could have concluded that Love's giving of the information was done maliciously with the intent to hurt the plaintiffs. This was, of course, strenuously denied by Love throughout his testimony at trial. Love testified that the communication of such information is a regular and permissible activity among personnel managers of various employers. 3 Of some importance, there is a factual distinction between the facts in this case and those in Granby, supra. In Granby, the plaintiff had been mistakenly placed on a list of strikers which had been exchanged with other employers. It was conceded that the plaintiff had not been a striker at all. Nevertheless, his name had been retained on the list of strikers even after the listing employer had known that the plaintiff was not a striker. Under these facts, a finding that there was some willful or malicious motive activating the employer in keeping the plaintiff's name on the striker list is an understandable, and defensible, conclusion. 4 In the present appeal, however, the evidence advanced to support a finding of malicious conduct in connection with the blacklist presents a far different picture. Appellees advance three propositions in attempting to prove a willful or malicious motive by Love: first, of his own volition Love volunteered the information concerning the plaintiffs, except for Charles Glaser; second, the information was in derogation of the plaintiffs' suitability for employment with Webb Forging; third, the information was false. 5 Given the proposition that blacklisting is not illegal per se, we cannot see how the three assertions above can be said, in and of themselves, to prove malice by Love. As the Court noted in the Granby opinion, Love's giving such information to Dowd in the context of their mutual interests in the employment process is allowable under South Carolina law. In a broader context, where such information is exchanged because of a mutual interest in its content, and without malice, penalizing that exchange would be a grave disservice to the employer. Certainly, the prospective employer seeks to acquire information judged pertinent by it to facilitate decision as to employment vel non. The former employer is a source of such information, and perhaps the only source. Proscribing such an interchange would severely inhibit the right of employers to communicate on a matter of serious, mutual concern. It appears that this reasoning underlies the decision of the Court expressed in Judge Woods' concurring opinion in Granby, supra, and this Court finds that reasoning strongly persuasive as it is applied in the South Carolina law. 6 The fact that Love proffered the information as to all plaintiffs, except Glaser, without specific inquiry by Dowd loses significance in light of the fact that Dowd initiated the exchange by inquiring about the reinstatement rights of former employees of Torrington. Glaser's application precipitated the inquiry, but the answer to the question as to Torrington reinstatement policy was obviously general in application to all former employees. In the context of that generalized inquiry and response, discussion of employees other than Glaser flowed as a natural consequence. 7 That the information exchanged between Love and Dowd related to and dealt with the suitability of the plaintiffs for employment is simply the function of such a list. Information normally found in such a list deals with the question of suitability of employment. 8 Whether the information on the list was or was not false is, in the context of the factual pattern here, more a function of subjective opinion than refutable fact. Nothing in the evidence from trial indicates that the falsity, if any, of the information contained on the list was brought home to Love, except in one case. In that instance, a fellow employee of Judy Howard told Love that Howard was neither an organizer for NOW nor an organizer for ERA. Love apparently responded that he had information which was contrary to that statement and he apparently relied upon that contrary information in his phone conversation with Mr. Dowd. We have already indicated that blacklisting is not illegal per se under South Carolina law. Given this, the subjective opinions of a person making a blacklist do not, in and of themselves, establish malice or a wanton desire to hurt the persons on the list. No information concerning the possible falsity of any of the statements is brought home to Love, except in the case of Howard. In that one case, the mere existence of conflicting information falls far short of establishing on the part of Love malice 2 with respect to the information on the blacklist concerning her. 9 After a detailed review of the record, we can find no evidence upon which the plaintiffs could have relied in asserting proof of malice. The three bases asserted by plaintiffs to support a finding of malice, i.e., volunteering information, derogatory information, and falsity of the information, if assumed to be true, do not present as much as that scintilla of evidence, under the facts in this case. South Carolina's concept of the necessary scintilla of evidence describes it as evidence which must be real, material, and pertinent and relevant evidence, not speculative and theoretical deductions. See Turner v. American Motorists Ins. Co., 176 S.C. 260, 264, 180 S.E. 55, 57 (1935). More than that scintilla of evidence is required to permit the conclusion that the inference drawn here by the jury was reasonably probable, and not the product of speculation. The record, simply put, does not disclose evidence relating to these three factors that can support the quantum leap from the three factors to establishing the required willful or malicious misconduct --malice in fact-- on the part of Love. For a discussion of factors held insufficient to establish malice in fact, though much stronger factors favoring the plaintiff than those in the case at bar, see Bell v. Bank of Abbeville, 211 S.C. 167, 44 S.E.2d 328 (1947) (second opinion).