Jones v. J. C. Penney Co.

Banke, Judge.

The appellants, Robert Daniel Jones and Harvey Lanier Brooking, were terminated from their employment with J. C. Penney Co. for the stated reason that they had sold drugs on Penney’s premises. They subsequently filed this defamation action against Penney and Scott E. Ludwig, a security investigator employed by *433Penney, alleging that Ludwig had slandered them shortly after their termination by telling one of their co-workers, William Johnson, that they had been fired for selling narcotics. The complaint was later amended to allege that Ludwig’s statement was libelous in that it…