Tacket v. General Motors Corp., 87-1578

• Decision Date: 07 December 1987
• Docket Number: No. 87-1578,87-1578
• Citation: 836 F.2d 1042
• Parties: 109 Lab.Cas. P 55,911, 2 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1388 Thomas J. TACKET, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1042

836 F.2d 1042

109 Lab.Cas. P 55,911, 2 Indiv.Empl.Rts.Cas. 1388

Thomas J. TACKET, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 87-1578.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Nov. 3, 1987.

Decided Dec. 7, 1987.

J. Lee McNeely, McNeely, Sanders & Stephenson, Shelbyville, Ind., for plaintiff-appellant.

Herbert C. Snyder, Jr., Barnes & Thornburg, Ft. Wayne, Ind., for defendant-appellee.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, and POSNER and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges.

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Someone painted this sign on an inside wall of Plant 17 of the Delco Remy Division of General Motors Corp. in Anderson, Indiana:

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

Delco painted over the sign seven to eight months later. Thomas J. Tacket, the night superintendent of Plant 17 at the time the sign appeared, filed this action for defamation in an Indiana court. General Motors removed it to federal court under the diversity jurisdiction. At the close of the trial, General Motors asked for, and the district judge granted, a directed verdict under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a). The judge reasoned that Tacket could have ordered the sign painted over earlier and had only himself to blame for any injury he suffered by delay.

The spray-painter juxtaposed Tacket with "racket" for more than the rhyme. Tacket drew attention by his role in securing GM's approval for a purchase order covering 2,000 wooden boxes to be built by "S & T Specialties", a firm located in the garage of Edward Spearman, a subordinate and friend of Tacket's. Delco had a contract to build some generators and needed crates in which to ship them. Spearman modestly suggested S & T as their manufacturer without mentioning his interest in S & T. Spearman and Tacket signed the requisition. During off-duty hours Tacket carried it to other plants to secure the remaining necessary signatures. This was not part of Tacket's job as night superintendent of Plant 17, and he concedes that he lacked the authority to sign a requisition as authorizing supervisor in the originating department and that he had never before done so. He testified that he had been told that Delco needed boxes pronto, that he was simply helping the firm to fulfill an important commitment, and that he had no idea Spearman was the "S" of "S & T Specialties".

The union representing Delco's workers discovered that the firm was buying the boxes and protested the subcontracting of work that Delco's own staff could have done. The union also discovered that Spearman was the "S", and suspected that Tacket was the "T", of "S & T Specialties". Delco promptly suspended both Spearman and Tacket pending an investigation, for managers' standing on both sides of such an arrangement violated GM's rules in addition to being bad labor relations. GM ultimately fired Spearman but concluded that it had insufficient evidence of Tacket's role in "S & T Specialties" to warrant his discharge. Tacket returned to work on April 9, 1985, still nominally night superintendent of Plant 17. His relations with the workers had soured, however, and on April 16, 1985, Delco transferred him to a "quality assurance team" with the same rank and salary but a much smaller group of subordinates. ¹

The workers started spreading rumors about Spearman and Tacket as soon as they learned about the subcontracting. After suspending the duo, higher managers explained to their subordinates what they had done and why. The manager of the Anderson plant explained to his immediate subordinates; the managers at this meeting explained to their subordinates; the chain extended through several levels of management and reached the rank-and-file. Meanwhile a sign approximately 3' X 30' appeared inside Plant 17 proclaiming "TACKET TACKET WHAT A RACKET". This sign stayed up for two or three days. The smaller stenciled sign replaced it, shortly before Tacket returned to work. Tacket contends that the meetings and signs are libelous and lowered him in the esteem of his subordinates, peers, and the community at large.

The district court granted a directed verdict to GM on the claims arising out of the meetings because it concluded that the statements relayed through the chain of command were true and, if not, then privileged. A federal court in a diversity case applies the same standard as a state court in passing on a motion for directed verdict. Chaulk v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., 808 F.2d 639, 640 (7th Cir.1986). The courts of Indiana inquire whether the evidence, taken with reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion, support a judgment in the non-movant's favor. American Optical Co. v. Weidenhamer, 457 N.E.2d 181, 183-84 (Ind.1983). A scintilla of evidence is not enough; the court may search for both quantitative and qualitative adequacy.

Even with the benefit of all reasonable inferences, Tacket did not establish that Delco, by its managerial personnel, published falsehoods about him. Witnesses testified that speakers at the meetings said that Delco had suspended Tacket pending an investigation into his role in the purchase order and in "S & T Specialties". These meetings necessarily related managers' suspicions about Tacket's honesty and their desire to find out how deeply he was involved, but a disclosure that he had been suspended on suspicion of misconduct was accurate. Tacket concedes that Delco had cause to suspect and suspend him.

Tacket relies on the testimony of several witnesses that they understood from these meetings that Tacket was a thief. One witness said that the speaker at one meeting reported that Tacket had been suspended pending investigation of "his involvement with the misappropriation of the 813." (An "813" is a Delco purchase order, a form known by its number.) John Maier said that Dick Flowers, a supervisor of Plant 17, accused Tacket of thieving material:

Q. Did they indicate why he was under suspension?

A. It was due to an 813 and some type of misappropriation of materials, as I understood it. It was a short meeting.

Q. What type of misappropriation of material?

A. I didn't know at the time. There was never an explanation at that time. Later we understood it to be some plywood to make some creates [sic] of some kind.

Q. Did you understand what they meant by a misappropriation of the plywood, or whatever?

A. It inferred theft, as we could understand it. You know, how, I don't know.

The district court discounted this and similar testimony on the ground that the witnesses were relating what they understood rather than what was said. Some misunderstanding was apparent, because no one accused Tacket of stealing a purchase order form (to which he had legitimate access) or stealing plywood. Some misunderstanding, perhaps a confabulation of what was said at the meetings and rumors circulating at the plant, was inevitable. The word had been spread that Tacket rammed through a purchase order that diverted money to "S & T Specialties"; the meeting describing Tacket's suspension was bound to "confirm" the worst in the minds of some, no matter how careful the speakers were to distinguish suspicion from accusation.

General Motors is not liable for the misunderstandings that some people are bound to entertain about a suspension, even after it has been explained to them. The defense of truth, recognized in Indiana, Elliot v. Roach, 409 N.E.2d 661, 681 (Ind.App.1980), would be worth very little if misunderstandings of true statements--misunderstandings generated by rumors that the speaker may have been trying to control--gave rise to liability. The district court, applying the "qualitative" assessment permitted under Indiana...