[VAR & VSEA] APPELLANTS’ OPENING BRIEF
"INTRODUCTION
This appeal arises from a workplace conflict between employees at a high-tech conglomerate called Varian – on one side Susan B. Felch and George Zdasiuk, on the other side Michelangelo Delfino and Mary E. Day. Delfino and Day said some nasty things on the Internet about Varian, Felch and Zdasiuk (hereafter collectively referred to as Varian). The speech was often hyperbolic and offensive, but that is as far as it went.
Conflict often leads to insults, but words alone rarely cause genuine damage. Short of violence, most of us simply exchange our harmless barbs and then turn away. Varian, however, did not turn away, but instead went to court and obtained a jury verdict in the sum of $775,000 and an injunction prohibiting such speech.
The key to resolving this appeal is that Varian has not suffered any economic harm – what the law calls special damages. The absence of special damages means Varian cannot recover money on either of the tort theories that could be implicated here – slander or false light invasion of privacy. And even if Varian had a tort cause of action, no injunction would lie, for it would be an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.
This petty conflict has escalated beyond all reason, for no good reason. Absent substantial harm, litigation is not the solution for every squabble that arises in daily human interaction. The time has come for this sorry episode in California jurisprudence to end – with a defense judgment...."
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