A company that makes and sells a proprietary blend of purported “wellness” herbs as part of its line of gourmet coffee, teas and hot chocolates has sued one of its former independent business owners/operators (IBOs) alleging, among other matters, disparagement, breach of a confidential performance agreement and non-competition clause, and the misappropriation of trade secrets. SereniGy Global, Inc. v. Mendoza, No. 13-08243CA04 (Fla. Cir. Ct., 11th Cir., Dade Cty., filed March 6, 2013). According to the complaint, the company relies on a network of IBOs to market and advertise its products and signed a performance agreement with the defendant to do so in March 2012. By October, the company allegedly “received information that Defendant had been making slanderous, derogatory and disparaging remarks about Plaintiff and its CEO in violation” of the agreement, was “divulging confidential information to a third-party,” and “had been disloyal and involved in moral turpitude by advising…
Tag Archives defamation
Beef Products Inc. (BPI) has filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News, Diane Sawyer and two former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees, among others, claiming that they “knowingly and intentionally published nearly 200 false and disparaging statements regarding the company and its product, lean finely textured beef (LFTB).” Beef Prods. Inc. v. ABC, Inc., No. ___ (Cir. Ct., Union Cty., S. Dak., filed September 13, 2012). The company is seeking $1.2 billion in damages. At one time, LFTB was used in some 70 percent of ground beef; it is made from fatty scraps remaining after cattle carcasses are cut into steaks and roasts. Bits of lean meat are heated and separated from the fat in a centrifuge, then treated with ammonium hydroxide gas to rid the product of E. coli or other pathogens. BPA claims that it sold more than 3.7 billion pounds of LFTB between 2003 and 2012 and…
A California court has reportedly ordered Dole Food Co. to pay about $200,000 in legal fees and costs to Swedish filmmakers whom the company sued for defamation, alleging that their documentary about the lawyer who sued Dole on behalf of Nicaraguan banana plantation workers exposed to the pesticide DBCP implied that the company caused their deaths. Dole Food Co. v. Gertten, No. __ (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., decided November 17, 2010). The filmmakers filed a motion to strike the lawsuit after it was filed in July 2009 on the ground that it constituted a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” or SLAPP, which is prohibited by state law. Although Dole apparently dismissed its lawsuit voluntarily thereafter, “[t]he potential distributors were concerned because Dole had only dismissed without prejudice. They had the right to re-file the action,” according to the filmmakers’ counsel. While the film has been distributed in 15…
A corporate watchdog organization, Corporations and Health Watch, has issued a call for food industry critics who have been threatened with litigation for saying “anything critical about food,” to submit information about their experience to the organization. According to the group, corporations are using the food disparagement laws now in effect in 13 states “as leverage to silence their critics, frequently sending threatening letter[s] to those who speak out or those who publish [their critiques], threatening to sue under these menacing laws.”
According to a news source, the Peruvian Superior Court has agreed to hear an appeal filed by a medical sciences biotechnologist convicted of defamation by a lower court for criticizing another scientist whose research allegedly showed that genetically modified (GM) maize had been illegally planted in a valley on the Peruvian coast. The researcher, Antonietta Gutierrez, apparently chose to seek redress through the courts when her work was questioned by Ernesto Bustamante, vice president of the Peruvian Association of Biologists, an undertaking that has drawn condemnation from the nation’s scientists. Claiming that “the verdict destroys the integrity of science,” they have urged other scientists to sign a declaration in support of Bustamante, claiming that the law explicitly exempts scientific critiques from defamation’s scope. See Crop Bulletin Update, May 20, 2010.
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