Threatening Defamation Backfires on Worker
Sam worked as a truck driver for a company that transported liquids for about 18 months.
After he left his employment, he brought legal action against the company in small claims court over $20,000 in alleged unpaid wages.
The company did not respond to the lawsuit and was noted in default. A judge awarded Sam the money he was claiming based on his evidence alone, since the employer was not there to contest it. A judge in such circumstances has little other choice if the defendant doesn’t show up to give their side of the story. The decision is not based on the merits of any real case, but simply a claim being made and not contested.
When the company became aware of Sam’s default judgment, it decided that rather than moving to set aside the judgment and going through a trial, it would just give him $20,000. Sam accepted that amount and signed a settlement agreement.
Once that money was in his bank account, Sam claimed that the company owed him an extra $1,100 in vacation pay and interest. The company told Sam they were not paying that amount and took the position there was no debt owing.
Sam wrote a letter that said if the company did not pay him the $1,100, he would go to the media and circulate on social media that the company falsely claimed to have cleaned its vehicle storage tanks on a regular basis, and that it would put food-grade liquids in tanks that were unwashed after an industrial use.
He also claimed that the company cheats employees in it payroll practices. He said he would circulate those claims in the public interest if he was not paid the money.
When the company would not be moved, Sam turned out to be a man of his word and sent a letter to a corporation that provided his old employer with 40 per cent of their business. He told them his old employer was routinely fudging the facts with respect to its tank-washing practices.
When his employer had its lawyer write him a letter, telling him to stop defaming his client, Sam was unabashed. He wrote back, indicating he was happy the lawyer was still making money from his old employer and that if they didn’t pay, his next step would be to go to the newspapers. He asked the lawyer to remind his employer that a lawsuit would take several years, but customers can be lost with one email or Facebook message. At that point, the company decided to take legal steps.
The company brought legal action against Sam for defamation and received an order from a judge prohibiting Sam from communicating with any of the company’s clients. Sam brought an action seeking to have the injunction dismissed — and looking for his claimed money.
In the course of the following court proceeding, it came out that Sam had previously been sued by an employer for defamation. Sam had claimed he had been wrongfully dismissed by this first employer and they said he quit. In an effort to get money from the company, he threatened in writing to tell the customers they were not an honest company and had serious potential safety problems. He said he would go to the media. That first case fizzled out since Sam never took steps then to publicize his accusations.
It would appear Sam had a bit of a pattern in dealing with former employers. One wonders why he was not concerned about potential future employers googling his name.
Ultimately, his second employer won and he lost.
Sam didn’t know when enough was enough and he hired a lawyer to appeal that decision to the Court of Appeal of Ontario, where he lost again. He was ordered to pay the company $65,000 in legal costs.
On a number of occasions through the years, I have dealt with clients who thought the employer would pay them anything they wanted because they knew where the skeletons were hidden. They almost always turned out to be wrong.
It is against the rules of professional conduct for lawyers to threaten to seek publication of scandalous details in exchange for money. Sam was not governed by those rules and brazenly did just that. It did not work.
This article was originally published by The Hamilton Spectator.
