Garcia v. Hilton Hotels International, Inc.
United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico
97 F.Supp. 5 (1951)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Garcia (plaintiff) brought a defamation suit against his former employer, Hilton Hotels International, Inc. (Hilton) (defendant). Paragraph 4 of Garcia’s complaint alleged that he was “violently discharged by the defendant, being falsely and slanderously accused of” bringing prostitution to a Hilton hotel. Paragraphs 5-8 of Garcia’s complaint alleged that he filed a claim with Puerto Rico’s labor department for severance pay and that at the hearing on the claim, Hilton repeated its statement that Garcia brought prostitution to the hotel. Hilton filed a motion to dismiss based on failure to state a claim, or, alternatively, a motion to strike paragraph 5-8 and for a more definite statement of the complaint. Hilton argued (1) that the statements made when firing Garcia (paragraph 4) were not published and thus were not defamatory, (2) that it had a qualified privilege to make the statements in paragraph 4, and (3) that it had an absolute privilege to make the statements at the hearing (paragraphs 5-8).
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Roberts, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 803,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
