Guthrie v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield

I must respectfully dissent from the reversals of the summary judgments entered for Blue Cross on both the defamation claims and the interferenee-with-a-business-relationship claim.

Even assuming that Blue Cross made false and defamatory statements about Guthrie to two patients, the summary judgments for Blue Cross on the defamation claims were proper if Blue Cross was conditionally privileged to make the communications and there was no evidence of actual malice. See Nelson v. Lapeyrouse Grain Corp., 534 So.2d 1085, 1094 (Aa.1988). Whether a statement is privileged is a question of law for the…