Opinion ID: 1318460
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did the Trial Court Err in Recognizing a Conditional Privilege Based on an Employer/Employee Relationship?

Text: Restatement (Second) of Torts § 595 provides: (1) An occasion makes a publication conditionally privileged if the circumstances induce a correct or reasonable belief that (a) there is information that affects a sufficiently important interest of the recipient or a third person, and (b) the recipient is one to whom the publisher is under a legal duty to publish the defamatory matter or is a person to whom its publication is otherwise within the generally accepted standards of decent conduct. This court has recognized two types of conditional privileges: 1) the conditional privilege accorded the media to print items of public interest, Green, 655 P.2d 736; West v. Northern Publishing Co., 487 P.2d 1304 (Alaska 1971), and 2) the conditional privilege based on circumstances where any one of several persons having a common interest in a particular subject matter believes that there is information that another sharing the common interest is entitled to know, Lull v. Wick Construction Co., 614 P.2d 321 (Alaska 1980) (privilege based on joint business interest). We have never addressed a conditional privilege based on the employer/employee relationship. The comments to Restatement § 595 indicate that a statement made for the protection of a lawful business, professional, property or other pecuniary interest falls within this rule if it is called for by a legal or moral duty or by generally accepted standards of decent conduct. W. Prosser, supra § 115, at 787; Restatement (Second) of Torts § 595 comments d, e (1977). The privilege is clearest when a legal relationship exists between the defendant and the person on whose behalf he intervenes. Prosser states that a physician may speak to protect the interest of his patient, an attorney that of his client, or an agent or employee that of his principal or employer. W. Prosser, supra, § 115 at 788. We find the reasoning of Prosser and the Restatement persuasive. Therefore, we recognize a conditional privilege based upon the employment relationship absent a showing of abuse. See generally, 50 Am.Jur.2d Libel and Slander § 271, at 789 (1970). Applying the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 595 to the uncontroverted evidence as stated in the facts and before the trial court, we conclude that the court correctly decided as a matter of law that Randall's Cry's statements were conditionally privileged. First, Cry's statements to Pay'N Save regarding Schneider's failure to ring up certain control sales affected a sufficiently important interest of Pay'N Save to warrant the communication. Pay'N Save had a legitimate proprietary interest in protecting its lawful business from theft or mishandling of money. Second, Cry, as manager of loss prevention, had a duty to report to Pay'N Save the information regarding the short cash register and Schneider's failure to ring up the control sales. Cry's statement therefore satisfies the requirements of Section 595. We conclude that reasonable jurors could not disagree that Cry's statements were conditionally privileged.