Derivative Defamation: The Application Of Respondeat Superior To Slander Claims

• Jurisdiction: Georgia,United States
• Law Firm: Drew Eckl & Farnham, LLP
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Contract of Employment, Trials & Appeals & Compensation, Personal Injury, Libel & Defamation, Food and Drugs Law
• Author: Katherine Barton
• Published date: 10 April 2023

It is a well-known principal of Georgia law that an employer can be held vicariously liable for injuries to another proximately resulting from the acts of an employee committed within the scope of his or her employment pursuant to the doctrine of respondeat superior. O.C.G.A. ' 51-2-2. In order for an employer to be held liable for an employee's actions under respondeat superior, the employee must (1) be in furtherance of the employer's business, and he or she must (2) be acting within the scope of his employer's business. Piedmont Hosp. v. Palladino, 276 Ga. 612, 613 (2003).

However, this general principal has an important limitation. While an employer may be held vicariously liable for what an employee does during the course and scope of their employment, an employer generally cannot be held liable for what an employee says. Georgia Courts have consistently held that the doctrine of respondeat superior does not apply in cases when an employee makes a false assertion of fact, communicated to a third-party, which harms or damages another person's reputation - in other words, makes a slanderous statement. Lepard v. Robb, 201 Ga. App. 41, 42 (1991); Kramer v. Kroger Co., Inc., 243 Ga. App. 883, 886 (2000). This is true even if the employee made the statements "within the scope of his duties and for the benefit of the corporation." Russell v. Dailey's, Inc., 58 Ga. App. 641 (1938). In fact, the only way for an employer to be held vicariously liable for an employee's slanderous statement is if the Plaintiff successfully proves that the employer expressly ordered or directed the employee to say the very words said. Galardi v. Steele-Inman, 266 Ga. App. 515, 518 (2004).

For example, in Kramer, an assistant manager at Kroger told coworkers that the Plaintiff, a former Kroger employee...