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Dragonas v. School Committee of Melrose9/6/2005
s commenced the present action in November, 2001, seeking damages and injunctive relief for, inter alia, the defendants' alleged violations of G. L. c. 151B, ยง 4(1C) (counts one and two), and, against Burke and Martin only, aiding and abetting violations of c. 151B (count four), and defamation (count six). Following discovery, the defendants moved for summary judgment on all counts of the complaint, which Dragonas opposed. After a hearing, the judge granted summary judgment for the defendants and allowed, in part, the defendants' motion to strike certain materials submitted by Dragonas in opposition to the motion. On September 25, 2003, judgment was entered for the defendants.
On October 1, 2003, Dragonas moved for reconsideration. On the same day, a different judge denied Dragonas's motion to strike portions of the summary judgment materials submitted by the defendants. While the motion for reconsideration was pending, Dragonas filed a timely notice of appeal from the judgment and related orders. After the judge declined to reconsider the summary judgment decision, Dragonas filed a second notice of appeal.
Standard of Review
" party moving for summary judgment in a case in which the opposing party the burden of proof at trial is entitled to summary judgment if he demonstrates, by reference to material described in Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(c), [365 Mass. 824 (1974)], unmet by countervailing materials, that the party opposing the motion has no reasonable expectation of proving an essential element of that party's case." Kourouvacilis v. General Motors Corp., 410 Mass. 706, 716 (1991).
Defamation. To prove defamation, the plaintiff must establish that "the defendant was at fault for the publication of a false statement regarding the plaintiff, capable of damaging the plaintiff's reputation in the community, which either caused economic loss or is actionable without proof of economic loss" (footnote omitted). White v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mass., Inc., 442 Mass. 64, 66 (2004), citing Ravnikar v. Bogojavlensky, 438 Mass. 627, 629-630 (2003).
Dragonas's defamation claim is based upon Burke's statements to the GAPP parents at the meeting in early March, 2000, which she claims impugned her professional character and competence. Specifically, Dragonas finds fault with (1) Burke's statement that on a previous GAPP trip, she went on a sightseeing trip and was unavailable to an ill and unattended student in Hamburg; and (2) Burke's statements questioning her fluency in German. She also highlights his "hyperbolic" statement that she was someone "who would rip your face off." In their memorandum in support of summary judgment, the defendants argued that the statements were either true, non-actionable matters of opinion, or subject to Burke's conditional privilege as Dragonas's supervisor. The motion judge held that Burke was entitled to summary judgment because, even assuming that his comments were false and defamatory, he had a conditional privilege to express his concerns to parents.
We conclude that (if false) the statement that Dragonas left a sick child unattended while she was out of town sightseeing was defamatory, particularly when it was combined with other derogatory comments Burke allegedly made about Dragonas's temperament and competence. The truth of the statement is a disputed fact based on the record before us, as is the question whether Burke acted out of malice, and thus lost the protection of the conditional privilege.
As the school principal, Burke had a conditional privilege to convey relevant information regarding a teacher to parents planning on sending their children overseas in the teacher's care. The school and
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