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Libel suit?

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Wsdc

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MA

My neighbor just made outright lies regarding my business at a zoning board of appeals hearing. I believe this qualifies as libel. If I can prove she lied with the intention of harming my business, can I sue? Would I have a good case? there were multiple lies but I think the easiest to disprove is she said we let children play under bucket trucks when we were removing trees from our property. FYI, we run a daycare so this could have and was meant to cause harm to our business.
 
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Proserpina

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MA

My neighbor just made outright lies regarding my business at a zoning board of appeals hearing. I believe this qualifies as libel. If I can prove she lied with the intention of harming my business, can I sue? Would I have a good case? there were multiple lies but I think the easiest to disprove is she said we let children play under bucket trucks when we were removing trees from our property. FYI, we run a daycare so this could have and was meant to cause harm to our business.


How have you been damaged?
 

Wsdc

Junior Member
It is quite possible that there may be damages. We operate two daycare's within the direct area (less than 1 mile apart). There are potentially two areas we may be damaged.

1. A great reputation is extremely important for success in our business. These false accusations were made at a local board meeting in front of 30+ local residents. These people are either potential clients or know potential clients as our clientele almost exclusively comes from the local neighborhood. The same neighbor also went and got a petition signed against our business, most likely using the same lies submitted to the zoning board.

2. The zoning board may take there statement into consideration and therefore not grant the special permit required to continue our home daycare. This area of our business generates roughly $100,000 per year in profit which we have tax documentation to back up.

Thank you
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
"There might be damages" is not sufficient. You cannot sue for something that might happen in the future and you cannot (in this case) sue for something you cannot prove.

When you have suffered actual financial damages that you can tie directly to her statement with sufficient proof for a court of law, THEN you can sue. Until then, no.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Wsdc, I am afraid you have no defamation action you can take against your neighbor for statements made by the neighbor in the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing, if the statements that were made were material and relevant to the questions being addressed.

In Massachusetts, courts have held that statements made in a judicial or quasi-judicial hearing are absolutely privileged. An absolute privilege provides immunity from any civil action arising from the statement, even if the statement is false and communicated with malice. In Massachusetts, Zoning Board of Appeals hearings are considered quasi-judicial hearings.

Massachusetts applies both absolute privileges and qualified privileges broadly, encouraging the free exchange of speech, especially when the speech involves matters of public interest or concern.

If your neighbor were to make the same or similar false statements about you and your business outside the area of protected speech (ie, to people in your neighborhood, to friends and acquaintances), then what is said could potentially be actionable. A defamation suit could potentially be supportable. You may, for instance, wish to have the petition that was submitted to the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the facts surrounding the gathering of signatures for the petition, reviewed by an attorney in your area.

In Massachusetts, you have three years within which to file a defamation claim against your defamer. Actual damages are not confined to economic losses. While you can be compensated for any out-of-pocket monetary harm you can demonstrate (loss of wages or benefits, loss of employment, loss of clients), you can also be compensated for any impairment of your reputation and standing in the community, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering. Physical illness is compensable. Alienation of friends is compensable. Pain at seeing family members suffer can be compensable.

Because defamation actions (and all legal actions, for that matter) require a review of all of the specific facts of any one case, as cases are judged in a court based on the particular facts presented by both sides in a dispute, a review by an attorney in your area can help you determine better if there is any legal action you can consider.

Again, however, and based solely on what you present here, I do not see that there is a defamation claim that could be successful if taken against your neighbor over what was communicated (falsely or not) in the Zoning Board hearing. Sorry.
 
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Wsdc

Junior Member
Thank you very much for your detailed reply. Although it is not what I would like to hear I appreciate the time you spent responding.

If I am understanding you correctly though, if I can prove that the petition signatures were gathered using the same lies that this would fall outside the protection of the zoning board of appeals meeting.

To be honest, my goal is not to seek financial compensation, it is to get them to retract their statements and to stop this behavior from continuing. The latter being significantly more important to me.

Thanks again.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
In Massachusetts, you have three years within which to file a defamation claim against your defamer. Actual damages are not confined to economic losses. While you can be compensated for any out-of-pocket monetary harm you can demonstrate (loss of wages or benefits, loss of employment, loss of clients), you can also be compensated for any impairment of your reputation and standing in the community, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering. Physical illness is compensable. Alienation of friends is compensable. Pain at seeing family members suffer can be compensable.
OP seems to allege that the business was defamed. Businesses don't get sick. Businesses don't have friends. Businesses don't suffer pain (emotional or physical.)

It might help to know what the actual accusations were...
 

quincy

Senior Member
Oh, sorry, Zig. I didn't mean to imply that a business could be compensated for the underlined. I was only expanding on what is considered compensable injury in Massachusetts under their defamation laws. It is not limited to economic losses.

Wsdc, I am actually not sure if the petition signature gathering can be used to support any legal action. It is the only possibility I can see off-hand in what you have described as your situation. You can still run into the whole "public interest and concern" issue, which is generally considered protected speech.

It would really take a personal review by an attorney in your area of all of the facts of the matter, to see if any of the actions taken against you by your neighbor could lead to a successful claim against this neighbor. Perhaps harassment may work where defamation will not? Again, all facts must be examined to know better what, if anything, you can pursue that would have any chance of success.
 
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Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Oh, sorry, Zig. I didn't mean to imply that a business could be compensated for the underlined. I was only expanding on what is considered compensable injury in Massachusetts under their defamation laws. It is not limited to economic losses.
Gotcha - and actually wasn't trying to "correct" you - just clarify for the OP's sake :)
 

quincy

Senior Member
Both clarifications and corrections of any advice I offer are always welcome. Although, admittedly, I do tend to fight corrections. ;) :D
 
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Wsdc

Junior Member
top two accusations:

1. Children at the daycare were playing under a bucket truck removing trees from our property. I have a signed affidavit from the tree service owner and a former employee stating this is false. Common sense tells you that we were removing the tees for safety reasons and therefor would not be playing under them during the removal.

2. Our business location not in question at the zoning board meeting was accused as being an illegal daycare. Easy to disprove as we have all needed documentation.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Again, you can forget what was said at the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing. None of this can be used against the neighbor.

If in order to get signatures on the petition, the neighbor lied about you and/or your business, for whatever reason, the statements he made could potentially be used to support a defamation action. You will need testimony from at least one of the signators as to what exactly they were told.

I suggest you take the tree company affidavit, a copy of the petition, a sworn statement from a witness, a transcript of the hearing (if possible), and any other evidence of "lies" you may have, and head to an attorney's office for a review. A cease and desist letter might be something that can be considered, an harassment complaint may be possible, a defamation suit may not be out of the question, and there may be other options I haven't thought of yet, but what is possible or not really depends on this personal review. Again, you may run into First Amendment rights here and these are difficult to challenge.

A personal review is not possible in a forum setting, so this review must be done by an attorney in your area. This personal review can better determine for you what courses of action you may realistically have.

Good luck.


Edit to add: It took me awhile (approximately ten hours) for Zigner's comment in his post #9 to register fully. IF there is any legal action to take against your neighbor, then harm to the reputation of your business, as Zigner mentioned, as well as any personal harm you may have suffered, are both matters to discuss with your attorney. Gather together whatever evidence you may have that demonstrates both. Defamatory comments made about a business can also potentially lead to a tortious interference claim (also a commercial disparagement claim, but that does not seem to apply here).
 
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