Court Opinion

ID: 9577270
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:33:35.155698+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:17.634233
License: Public Domain

MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge,
concurring in part, and dissenting in part:
I concur in Part I of the majority opinion, affirming summary judgment as to the Metzes’ individual claims because they have failed to present evidence that any recipient of the emails actually understood them to refer to plaintiffs. I respectfully dissent, however, as to Part II.B because I would further hold that the Metzes have also failed to present evidence of malice or bad faith sufficient to vitiate the common interest privilege, and I would affirm the district court’s grant of AT & T’s motion for summary judgement.
1. Malice
I agree that the district court erred to the extent it concluded that Mr. Metz’s statement that Ms. Roman did not “hate” him and his wife was a binding admission that estopped the Metzes from contending that Ms. Roman’s email was motivated by malice. That remark, given in a deposition and immediately qualified,1 does not constitute a judicial admission that would bar *965presentation of evidence that Ms. Roman was motivated by malice, whether mere “animosity” or out-right hatred. Removing that bar, however, does not relieve the plaintiffs of the burden of proving not only that malice was present when Ms. Roman wrote the email, but also that malice was the primary motive for the communications. “[I]f the publication is made for the purpose of protecting the interest in question, the fact that the publication is inspired in part by resentment or indignation at the supposed misconduct of the person defamed does not constitute an abuse of the privilege.” Williams v. Taylor, 129 Cal.App.3d 745, 752-53, 181 Cal.Rptr. 423 (1982) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts § 603, cmt. a (1977)); Biggins v. Hanson, 252 Cal.App.2d 16, 20, 59 Cal.Rptr. 897.
Mr. Metz’s assertion, made in his deposition, that Ms. Roman felt “animosity” toward him not rising to the level of hatred cannot constitute “evidence” of malice. Mr. Metz speculated that “there was some anger, you know, some hostility” because his actions required Ms. Roman to work over the holidays, but admitted that “[t]hats just me. That’s just what I think.” When pressed as to why he thought that, Mr. Metz was clear that his belief was based solely on the fact that Ms. Roman had written a false statement in her email: “It’s not a good statement to say. So what drove it? The only thing I can think that drove it is negative feelings, you know.” Cal. Civ.Code § 48 is clear, however, that malice cannot be inferred from the fact of the communication itself.
Apart from Mr. Metz’s assertions of “anger” and “animosity,” the only other concrete evidence the plaintiffs have proffered is Ms. Metz’s report of a threat by Ms. Roman, some unspecified time earlier, that the Metzes “needed to consider that AT & T was very powerful before withdrawing any services, because it would not look good if other clients thought we would not service AT & T properly, and she would spread the information widely.” The services were withdrawn, and shortly thereafter, Ms. Roman sent her emails. While relevant to an inquiry into malice, such a remark, without more, does not perceptibly advance plaintiffs’ cause. “The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of the plaintiffs position will be insufficient; there must be evidence on which the jury could reasonably find for the plaintiff.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). No reasonable jury, even if it believed that the threat was actually uttered, could infer from the threat alone that malice, rather than the privileged purpose, was the primary motivation for Ms. Roman’s email.
2. Good Faith Basis
The majority also errs in stating that plaintiffs have provided sufficient evidence to meet their burden that the defendant had no reasonable ground for believing her statements to be true. At the time the subject emails were sent, Ms. Metz had personally told Ms. Roman by email that SDY/ACCI had suffered a large-scale theft by employees who had disrupted SDV/ ACCI’s accounting system in an effort to cover their tracks. She also knew that several AT & T managers had complained about late and improperly calculated paychecks. She knew from an email sent by Shirley Delia, a co-worker who had spoken with Mr. Metz, that SDV/ACCI had suffered significant financial problems caused by Mr. Metz’s medical disabilities. Finally, she knew that Mr. Metz was calling to abruptly cancel the SDV/ACCI contract because of late payments, and would not even grant an extension so the transition could occur after the holidays. Mr. Metz’s assurance to Ms. Roman during that same conversation that SDV/ACCI was not in *966financial trouble is insufficient to negate a good faith belief Ms. Roman might have had about plaintiffs’ financial position: Common sense suggests that what Mr. Metz said is exactly the type of comment the owner of a company on the verge of insolvency would make.
The only evidence on this issue in plaintiffs’ favor is Ms. Roman’s contradictory remarks in testimony: at one point in the deposition, she commented that “[a]t that point they were able to [provide services], but they chose not to”; at another, she says that “[H]e couldn’t do it anymore.” This apparent contradiction, however, does nothing to undermine the other evidence of SDV/ACCI’s financial instability Roman had at the time' — the “multitude of factors” she cited in testimony as the basis for her belief that SDV/ACCI was in financial difficulty. In other words, plaintiffs’ case rests upon a mere scintilla, which I would hold is insufficient to defeat the privileged occasion and avoid summary judgment.
Because I do not believe that a reasonable jury, presented with the two módica of evidence that plaintiffs have put forward to defeat the privileged occasion, could find either the presence of malice or the absence of reasonable grounds to believe the truth of the emails’ content, I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion, and would affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgement for AT & T.

. Mr. Metz clarified a few seconds thereafter, “She definitely didn’t like working vacation— during the Christmas, but I don't think— hate’s a pretty big word.”