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.
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.
