INDIANAPOLIS–The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for Interra Credit Union after its former president, Jack Sheets, was fired as the result of an executive's hotline call.
Sheets had claimed defamation per se and considered the hotline company liable, but the COA ruled comments made during the call were not defamatory, according to TheIndianaLawyer.com.
Sheets was president and CEO of Interra Credit Union, but in 2011 Sheets experienced an inter-cerebral hemorrhage. He returned to work eight months later and during that time a hotline managed by Venture International was installed for employees to call with complaints, The IndianaLawyer.com reported.
According to The IndianaLawyer.com, in 2012, Interra VP David Birky called the hotline and stated he had concerns about Sheets’ leadership, stating that Sheets was having trouble following conversations and also accepting different ideas and solving problems. Birky indicated he had evidence of all of these allegations. Venture followed up on the call with Birky and provided evidence of the call to the hotline as well as its meeting with Birky to Interra’s board of directors. The board then released Sheets of his duties, according to TheIndianaLawyer.com.
Sheets filed suit claiming defamation per se against Birky and eventually Interra, Venture and Venture CEO Curt Bechler in the lawsuit. The trial court granted summary judgment for Birky and Interra and partial and then full judgment to Venture and Bechler. Sheets appealed, that ruling, TheIndianaLawyer.com reported.
But the appeals court held up the trial court’s decision, stating that Birky’s statements were opinions and “did not impute occupational misconduct without resort to extrinsic evidence.” Defamation per se requires accusations without resort to outside evidence, which Birky provided, the court ruled.