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Raghavan v. Boeing Co.10/31/2005
s BSS put it, "Raghavan should be prohibited from providing testimony that contradicts this Court's express findings" in granting summary adjudication. To do otherwise, BSS argued, the trial court "would be allowing Raghavan to relitigate issues which have already been fully litigated through Defendants' summary adjudication motion . . . ." BSS's counsel acknowledged that " he written reprimand is going to be very central in the case."
Raghavan opposed the motion on the ground that the summary judgment statute prohibited an order excluding such evidence. In addition, Raghavan stated he intended to prove that he had not made any misrepresentations or provided misleading information at the May 29, 2001 meeting and that the reprimand was motivated by retaliatory animus. Raghavan also emphasized that the dispute over the truthfulness of the written reprimand "goes to the heart of the retaliation case."
The trial court stated that, in summarily adjudicating the defamation cause of action, " he court found that the affirmative defense [of truth] was established without the existence of a single triable issue . . . . [ ] I think we need to bear that in mind. We cannot revisit the question whether the allegedly defamatory statements were true or untrue. . . . [ ] . . . [ ] . . . I think [Raghavan's] argument goes too far and too much. It nullifies the effect which [the summary judgment statute] gives to a grant of summary adjudication."
The trial court ruled that, based on the undisputed facts that supported the summary adjudication of the defamation cause of action, it would instruct the jury that certain facts were established, namely, Raghavan had made misrepresentations and provided misleading information at the May 29, 2001 meeting.
Thereafter, the parties jointly prepared a jury instruction along the lines described by the trial court. Although Raghavan stipulated to the language of the instruction, he "expressly reserve his objection that it is improper for the Court to provide any instruction to the jury as a result of its granting summary adjudication to Defendants."
During opening statements, defense counsel discussed Raghavan's May 29, 2001 presentation, the investigation into whether Raghavan had made misrepresentations and provided misleading information, and the substance of the written reprimand. Defense counsel then stated: "Now, that written reprimand for making misrepresentations the court will tell you has been established to be true. Dr. Raghavan did misrepresent the facts in that reprimand."
Before the taking of evidence, the trial court instructed the jury as follows: "Raghavan received a written reprimand on July 30, 2001. It has been established that the statements in the written reprimand that Raghavan engaged in misrepresentative behavior and made misleading statements are true. In particular, it has been established that Raghavan's written presentation at a May 29, 2001 meeting with Boeing Satellite Systems's senior management contained untrue statements regarding the status of certain industrial offsets."
In his closing argument, defense counsel stated: "I would like you to keep in mind as Judge Buckner read to you at the start of the case, there's a stipulated fact here that you must accept as true. And I would like to remind you what it is before we get into the [May 29, 2001] meeting, and that is we already know what happened at the . . . meeting because this is an established fact which you are required to accept as true in this case. [ ] That Dr. Raghavan received the written reprimand, that it has been established that the statements that he engaged in misrepresentative behavior and misleading stateme
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