Opinion ID: 2077878
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Wilkinson's Defamation Claims

Text: Wilkinson also leveled defamation claims against the individual defendants, Luzzi and Hilliard. Luzzi's allegedly defamatory statements were contained in certain memoranda that he had sent to Wilkinson in 1991 and 1992. [15] The statements Hilliard allegedly uttered were similar to those of Luzzi, though he directed his remarks to the commission. The motion justice held that, in reviewing the allegedly defamatory statements, the court can discern no defamatory meaning here and that at worst, [these] assertion[s] would seem to be privileged. The hearing justice granted summary judgment in favor of Luzzi and Hilliard. We have held that it is for the court to decide whether a statement contains a defamatory meaning. Swerdlick v. Koch, 721 A.2d 849, 859 (R.I.1998) (citing Healey v. New England Newspapers Inc., 520 A.2d 147, 150 (R.I.1987)). A defamatory statement consists of [a]ny words, if false and malicious, imputing conduct which injuriously affects a [person's] reputation, or which tends to degrade him [or her] in society or bring him [or her] into public hatred and contempt   . Swerdlick, 721 A.2d at 860 (quoting Elias v. Youngken, 493 A.2d 158, 161 (R.I.1985)). After reviewing the record, we agree with the motion justice that all concerned had believed in good faith that Luzzi properly had been supervising Wilkinson  until the District Court held in 1993 that neither URI nor the Board of Governors were Wilkinson's employer. Moreover, the statements were, from both Luzzi's and Hilliard's point of view, substantially true. In any event, regardless of whether it legally qualified as Wilkinson's employer in 1991 and 1992, URI had been intimately involved with the crime lab and its oversight from its inception. Although he was not statutorily authorized to serve as Wilkinson's supervisor, Luzzi acted in that capacity pursuant to URI's joint  albeit unauthorized  de facto control over crime-lab employees. And Hilliard was the director of the lab, and thus was Wilkinson's supervisor when he allegedly uttered his defamatory statements. Thus, even if their statements might have been defamatory in some other context, both Luzzi and Hilliard were entitled to the legal protection afforded to them as Wilkinson's de facto supervisors by the qualified privilege accorded to those who comment upon the job performance of individuals they supervise. See Swanson v. Speidel Corp., 110 R.I. 335, 338, 293 A.2d 307, 309 (1972) (holding that statements in personnel files that would otherwise be defamatory are privileged). The allegedly defamatory statements related to Wilkinson's job performance, and Luzzi and Hilliard communicated them to Wilkinson himself, or to persons in a supervisory position over Wilkinson.Therefore, we hold, Luzzi's and Hilliard's statements were privileged. Discerning no material issues of disputed fact and no errors of law, we conclude that the motion justice properly granted summary judgment in favor of Luzzi and Hilliard on these claims.