Carney Nurses Victorious against renewed Anti-SLAPP Motion
In the latest chapter of MRW’s case, Blanchard, et al. v. Steward Carney Hospital, Inc., et al. our clients, a group of nine nurses, have scored another victory at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC denied the second motion of their former of their former employer , Steward Carney Hospital, to dismiss the Plaintiff’s defamation claim, determining that the lower court had correctly ruled that the nurses had stated a legitimate legal claim. Specifically, the Court ruled that the nurses had sued to seek damages for their injuries, and not for an ulterior motive.
In so ruling, the SJC upheld the case’s exclusion from a narrow category of cases, so-called “SLAPP” suits brought to chill free expression. On the nurses’ behalf, MRW successfully argued that their claim had nothing to do with the hospital’s free speech and everything to do with the harm the hospital inflicted on them by spreading false statements about the nurses in connection with their terminations.
The case will now proceed in the lower court.
The full decision and article are available through the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly website.