A jury has awarded damages of $425,000 against two individuals
who defamed their former employer and its executives in more than
14,000 messages on more than 100 internet message boards and their
own web site.14 Dec 2001
Research scientists Michelangelo Delfino and Mary Day were dismissed from Varian Medical Systems in 1998. In their messages, which they continued to post after Varian raised its lawsuit in the same year, they accused the company’s executives of, among other things, adultery, discrimination, homophobia, being a danger to children and videotaping office bathrooms.
The pair wrote new postings on their laptops about the company and its lawyers while they sat in the courtroom listening to the evidence against them over the course of eight weeks. The judge reminded jurors each day to neither view Delfino and Day’s web site nor read their Yahoo! message board postings.
The jury found that the pair acted with “malice, fraud and oppression,” according to legal journal The Recorder. Both individuals have vowed to appeal against the verdict.