Opinion ID: 2257786
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The plaintiff's requests for evaluations.

Text: The defendants contend, however, that the plaintiff affirmatively consented to the communications of which she now complains. They rely on the allegation in Ms. Wallace's complaint that in April 1994, after her work had been criticized by several Skadden, Arps attorneys, the plaintiff told her superiors that she had worked with at least eight other attorneys on various projects and requested to hear the evaluations of those other eight attorneys. Complaint, para. 133. The plaintiff also asked two attorneys to specify their complaints about the quality of her work. Id., para. 135. Finally, the plaintiff alleges that she prepared a memorandum in which she listed all of the attorneys with whom she had worked and requested that each of these attorneys be required to submit a written evaluation of her performance. Id., para. 138. The defendants claim, in effect, that with respect to any negative evaluations that were published after the plaintiff made these requests, she only got what she asked for, and that the communications in question are therefore absolutely privileged. In light of our decisions in Farrington and Kraft, the defendants' point is not without some force. [14] But assuming, contrary to the plaintiff's emphatic allegations, [15] that her requests for evaluations were voluntary, we do not believe that they can fairly be viewed as constituting consent at least to some of the defamatory communications which were allegedly made within the limitations period. Specifically, the plaintiff claims that the defendants falsely and maliciously represented that a client had demanded the plaintiff's removal from all of that client's matters. She also alleges that, by inactivating her access key, the defendants treated her like terminated employees who had done something immoral or disgraceful, and thereby represented to others that she too had engaged in such conduct. We cannot say, as a matter of law, that the plaintiff's requests for evaluations rendered these alleged communications absolutely privileged. We therefore conclude that, notwithstanding the plaintiff's alleged consent, the complaint should not have been dismissed. [16]