WILLIAM G. BELL, APPELLANT,
v.
DANIEL G. GELLERT, APPELLEE
PER CURIAM.
We affirm the final summary judgment entered below in favor of the defamation defendant Daniel G. Gellert based on the following, briefly stated, legal analysis.
First, a defamation action arising out of a labor grievance complaint filed by an airline pilot against his airline employer, as here, may be maintained in a state court and is not pre-empted by the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 151-188 (1976). See Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 394 U.S. 369, 89 S.Ct. 1109, 22 L.Ed.2d 344 (1969); Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers of America, 383 U.S. 53, 86 S.Ct. 657, 15 L.Ed.2d 582 (1966).
Second, the defamatory statements sued upon are absolutely privileged because they (a) are contained in the above-stated labor grievance complaint, (b) are relevant for defamation law purposes to the labor grievance complaint, W. Prosser & W.P. Keeton, The Law of Torts § 114, at 818 (5th ed. 1984); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 587 comment c (1977), and (c) are, therefore subject to an absolute privilege based on the better-reasoned authority in the country. Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 585 comment c, 587 comment f (1977); Annot., 60 A.L.R.3d 1041, 1053-54 (1974).
Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Feldman v. Stephen Glucroft, M.D., 522 So. 2d 798 (Fla. 1988)…o. 2d 198 (Fla.1954) (statements made in license revocation proceedings before the Insurance Commissioner); Lloyd v. Hines, 474 So. 2d 376 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985) (statements of state law enforcement agent as witness in criminal trial); Bell v. Gellert, 469 So. 2d 141 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985) (statements made in labor grievance complaint which were relevant to that complaint); Farish v. Wakeman, 385 So. 2d 2 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980) (compelled testimony before a legislative committee); Stone v. Rosen, 348 So. 2d 387 (Fla. 3…
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Hope v. Nat'l Alliance OF Postal & Fed. Emps., 649 So. 2d 897 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995)…at Jacksonville was not the postmaster, R.H. Hodges. Following arguments on the motion for summary judgment, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the labor organization based on the defense of absolute privilege. In Bell v. Gellert, 469 So. 2d 141 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985), the court found that statements are absolutely privileged if they are (1) contained within the labor grievance complaint, and (2) are relevant for defamation law purposes to the labor grievance complaint. A number of courts have…
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Brown v. Comair, Inc., 803 So. 2d 896 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)…. Nat'l Alliance of Postal & Fed. Employees, 649 So. 2d 897 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995). We agree. In order to be absolutely privileged, a statement need only be relevant to the labor grievance proceedings. Hope, 649 So. 2d at 900 (citing Bell v. Gellert, 469 So. 2d 141, 142 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)). Relevancy is broadly defined to include any statement which has “some relation” to the grievance proceeding. Id. at 901 (citing to Levin, Middlebrooks, Mabie, Thomas, Mayes & Mitchell, P.A. v. U.S. Fire Ins. Co., 639 So. 2d…
Authorities Cited
- Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers OF Am., 383 U.S. 53 (U.S. 1966)
- Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Jacksonville Terminal Co., 394 U.S. 369 (U.S. 1969)
- E. AIR Lines, Inc. v. Gellert, 438 So. 2d 923 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)
- Gellert v. E. AIR Lines, Inc., 370 So. 2d 802 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)
- L.B.K., Inc. v. Union Indem. Ins. Co., 431 So. 2d 329 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)