Managers May Be Liable to Fired Employee for Supposed “Unjustified Personal Vendetta”
In Bresler v. Muster, decided Thursday by the Massachusetts high court (in an opinion by Justice Serge Georges), a Massachusetts Appeals Court staff attorney (Bresler) who had been fired sued three managers—the deputy chief staff attorney (Muster), the chief staff attorney (Bowe), and the court administrator (DeRossi)—claiming the firing stemmed from their personal hostility to Bresler. The legal theory was tortious interference with advantageous relations, which under Massachusetts law requires a showing that
(1) [the plaintiff] had an advantageous relationship with a third party …; (2) the defendant knowingly induced a breaking of the relationship; (3) the defendant’s interference with the relationship, in addition to being intentional, was improper in motive or means; and (4) the plaintiff was harmed by the defendant’s actions.
The “improper … motive” portion of the third element has been understood as requiring “actual malice” in the sense of “a spiteful, malignant purpose, unrelated to the legitimate corporate interest.” (This is not the way “actual malice” is used in libel law, where it refers to knowing or reckless falsehood.)
The court allowed Bresler’s case to go forward against Muster and Bowe:
[I]t is reasonably inferable that Muster acted with a spiteful, malignant purpose unrelated to any legitimate interest of the Appeals Court—namely, to alienate Bresler from his superiors and peers out of resentment for his professional success. This improper motive is sufficiently supported by allegations that (i) other staff attorneys believed Muster was jealous of Bresler; (ii) Muster accused Bresler of attempting to “take over”; (iii) she solicited criticism of Bresler from judges and encouraged them to report those criticisms to Bowe; (iv) she ridiculed Bresler and belittled his writing to judges Bowe, DeRossi, and other staff attorneys; (v) she discouraged attendance at Bresler’s seminars and failed to publicize them; (vi) a union steward reported that Muster was “brutal” in her review of Bresler’s editing and subjected him to unfair scrutiny; (vii) Bresler’s performance evaluations declined sharply after Muster became deputy chief staff attorney and began attending his performance meetings, supporting an inference that Muster contributed to that decline; and (viii) Muster provided at least some of the false or trivial allegations used by DeRossi as grounds for Bresler’s termination. {Taken as true, Muster’s alleged conduct plausibly … supports an inference of an “unjustified personal vende
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