Fees v. Trow

This is a defamation case. The issue is whether and to what extent an employee of a state facility for the developmentally disabled is protected by a privilege in making a defamatory report of another employee’s abuse of an adult resident of the facility. The trial court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The Appellate Division, in an unreported opinion, acknowledged that under the circumstances defendant enjoyed a qualified privilege, but nevertheless concluded that there was a fact issue of whether the privilege had been abused. The court below therefore reversed. We granted…