Neitlich v. Peterson

By the time this action came to trial eight of nine counts in the complaint had fallen away. The one count remaining alleged that the defendant Wayne N. Peterson (Wayne) had libelled the plaintiff Neitlich, a lawyer, by dispatching a letter to the Massachusetts Bar Association which expressed the writer’s opinion that Mr. Neitlich had violated Rule 3:22, Canon 4 and Canon 5 of the Canons of Ethics regulating members of the Massachusetts Bar. 3 Wayne’s grievance was that Mr. Neitlich, who had in the recent past represented Wayne and a corporation controlled by him in business matters, had…