Blanchard v. Steward Carney Hosp., Inc. — Feb. 2016 (Summary)

DEFAMATION

Blanchard v. Steward Carney Hosp., Inc.
No. 14-P-717 (Mass. App. Ct. Feb. 24, 2016)

The Appeals Court of Massachusetts affirmed in part and reversed in part the lower court’s denial of a motion to dismiss filed by a hospital and other defendants in a suit brought by a number of registered nurses alleging defamation. The hospital was faced with losing its license to operate an inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit due to purported patient abuse and neglect. The hospital’s president made statements in newspapers and in internal e-mails regarding concerns about patient safety and the termination of a number of employees, including the nurses, because of these concerns. The hospital argued that the nurses’ suit should be dismissed because of the state’s “anti-SLAPP” statute, which protects statements made as a part of petitioning activity. The court found that the president’s statements made to the newspaper were protected under the “anti-SLAPP” statute because they were tied to petitioning activity in that they were made in pursuit of the maintenance of the license to operate the psychiatric unit and were not devoid of factual support. However, the court determined that the internal e-mail was not protected by the “anti-SLAPP” statute because there was no indication that the e-mail was provided to state regulators or that the regulators were told about the e-mail. Furthermore, “[t]hat the e-mail may have been part of an over-all strategy to address the conditions in the unit in the hope of influencing the regulators is not sufficient to qualify as petitioning activity.”