When law firms break up, litigation often follows. The case of Merritt, Flebotte, Wilson, Webb & Caruso, PLLC v. Hemmings, decided Tuesday by the North Carolina Court of Appeals, involved claims between lawyers of defamation and violation of a nondisparagement provision in a settlement agreement.
The Defendants had left the Plaintiff’s firm to start
The Business Court dismissed on a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings an unfair and deceptive practices claim stemming from a dispute between members of a limited liability company.
CDC, a minority member of the LLCs, argued that the member owning a 70% interest, Grimmer, had removed CDC as a manager and had made unnecessary
Today, in Nucor Corp. v. Prudential Equity Group, LLC, the Court of Appeals affirmed the 12(b)(6) dismissal of a claim for libel per se against a securities firm.
The firm had published a report about the plaintiff which stated that antitrust lawsuits against the company were possible, and that the company needed to give up
The Court dismissed a defamation claim. It found that the claims were not plead with sufficient particularity (omitting in some instances to state to whom the statements were made and when they were made). One allegedly defamatory statement was subject to an absolute privilege, which covers "not only . . . statements made in the
The Court granted a Motion to Dismiss a claim for slander, ruling that plaintiff had failed to plead the allegedly defamatory statement with sufficient particularity. It held that, although plaintiff was not required to plead the words verbatim, it was required to plead them either substantially as they were said or at least with sufficient
Plaintiff sued a departed employee, alleging that she had violated her confidentiality agreement and her non-competition agreement. The Court found defendant’s new employer had not tortiously interfered with her contract. It found the provision on which plaintiff relied, restricting its employees from providing services to any of its clients for 180 days following the termination
Plaintiff’s former employer had violated the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act by failing to pay her bonuses when due. The Court granted summary judgment on this claim in favor of the plaintiff.
The Court granted summary judgment against plaintiff on her slander claims, finding that she had neither pled nor proven the alleged slander
The defendant told its insureds that that could not have the plaintiff body shop repair their vehicles. The plaintiff sued for defamation.
The Court granted summary judgment on plaintiff’s claims of libel per se. The corporate plaintiff was unable to show that any potential customers regarded the claim as being defamatory on its face. The