O'Brien & Gere Engineers, Inc. v. City of Salisbury

The litigation privilege immunizes a party for statements made in a judicial proceeding and is fundamental to the courts’ truth-finding mission. We have previously analyzed this privilege only in the defamation context. Today we address two distinct questions that arise out of a dispute between a city and a design engineer’s settlement agreement to, among other things, not disparage one another. Can the litigation privilege immunize a party from a claim for breach of a non-disparagement clause? If so, can a party waive that privilege? We examine these questions to determine whether a trial…