Project44, Inc. v. Fourkites, Inc.

Plaintiff filed a lawsuit alleging that agents of the defendant sent defamatory e-mails to the plaintiff’s chief revenue officer and two members of its board of directors. The defendant argued that there was no publication to a third party because the emails were sent to members of the plaintiff corporation who were, in effect, the corporation itself. The supreme court affirmed the judgment of the appellate court, finding that there is a publication to a third party when an allegedly defamatory statement is communicated to a member of a corporation’s executive leadership team. (THEIS, NEVILLE, OVERSTREET, CUNNINGHAM, ROCHFORD, and O’BRIEN, concurring)