Metge v. Central Neighborhood Improvement Ass'n

649 N.W.2d 488, 19 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 436, 2002 Minn. App. LEXIS 975, 2002 WL 1902329
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 20, 2002
DocketC2-02-249
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 649 N.W.2d 488 (Metge v. Central Neighborhood Improvement Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Metge v. Central Neighborhood Improvement Ass'n, 649 N.W.2d 488, 19 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 436, 2002 Minn. App. LEXIS 975, 2002 WL 1902329 (Mich. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

HANSON, Judge.

Appellant sued respondent for defamation and tortious interference with contract based upon respondent’s statements and actions that allegedly led to a neighborhood organization’s termination of appellant’s at-will employment. On appeal from summary judgment dismissing her claims, appellant argues that the district court erred in concluding (1) that the alleged defamatory statements were mere opinion and not defamatory, or were not made with malice, and (2) that the actions alleged to constitute tortious interference with contract were not shown to have caused the termination of appellant’s employment, or were justified. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

FACTS

In 1992, appellant Jana L. Metge was hired as the Executive Director of the Central Neighborhood Improvement Association (CNIA). CNIA is a community-based nonprofit organization responsible for distributing public and private funds used for the improvement of Minneapolis’ Central Neighborhood. She served in that position until 2000 when her employment was terminated by CNIA’s Board of Directors.

Metge brought claims for, among other things, wrongful termination of employment, defamation, and tortious interference with contract against CNIA and several individuals connected with CNIA, including respondent Basim Sabri. Sabri is a landlord and developer in the Central Neighborhood and, from time to time, was a CNIA board member and served on CNIA committees.

From October 1999 to March 2000, Sa-bri served as co-chair of CNIA’s Business Development Committee (BDC). The BDC recommends to the CNIA Board of Directors how certain funds allocated to business development in the Central Neighborhood should be spent. Sabri submitted several proposals to the BDC that would benefit his own real-estate development company, Sabri Properties, and then acted on those proposals as co-chair of the BDC.

Metge reported to CNIA’s Board of Directors that Sabri was using his leadership position at CNIA to benefit his own business ventures and that his actions constituted self-dealing and violated CNIA’s conflicts-of-interest policy. Metge urged CNIA’s Board of Directors to hold Sabri accountable for the alleged violations.

Thereafter, Sabri openly declared his desire to see Metge fired as CNIA’s executive director. In that connection, Sabri publicly disparaged Metge’s performance to the CNIA’s board and various community members. On April 7, 2000, Sabri wrote a letter to Metge complaining about her actions in connection with Sabri’s attempt to purchase a building at Fourth Avenue and Lake Street. Sabri published the letter to several people, including the *494 Minneapolis Star Tribune, the mayor of Minneapolis, a Minneapolis city council member, and members of the Minneapolis Community Development'Agency. Metge alleges that three of the statements in the letter are defamatory (indicated by italics):

You have, in previous years, succeeded in manipulating some of the CNIA board members by feeding them wrong and/or misleading information. It is apparent that you continue to try to manipulate cumnt board members to accomplish your own personal goals.
⅜ ⅜ ⅞: ⅜ ⅜? ⅝
Not only is your challenge of [a member of Sabri’s staff] right to vote evidence of your efforts to discredit and discriminate against me, it is also evidence of your willingness to waste CNIA’s staff time and resources on a personal goal.

Metge alleges that in the months before the May 16, 2000, annual meeting of CNIA, Sabri recruited a group of individuals to run for the CNIA Board of Directors for the specific purpose of terminating Metge’s employment. Metge further alleges that Sabri brought a large number of people from outside of the Central Neighborhood to the annual meeting to vote for his slate of board candidates. Most of these candidates were elected, including Sabri. Following the election, the new board voted to swear itself in immediately, even though it may have been CNIA’s practice for newly elected board members to be sworn in on or after June 1 following the annual meeting. The new CNIA Board of Directors then held a special meeting on May 18, 2000, and voted to terminate Metge’s employment. When a controversy arose concerning whether the special meeting was legal, the new Board of Directors was again sworn in on June 27, 2000, at which time it conducted another meeting and voted to ratify all decisions made during the May 18 meeting.

Metge obtained employment as the executive director of another neighborhood association some time later. On April 23, 2001, Sabri posted a public message on the internet. Metge alleges that statements made in the posting refer to her by implication and are defamatory (indicated by italics):

And in fact, there were many files pertaining to NRP [Neighborhood Revitalization Program] funds and programs, along with many other materials that were necessary to operate the organization and NRP business that had disappeared when the new board came into office. Not only is there $110,000 of NRP funds currently missing, but as we all know, it costs a lot of money to generate those files and reconstruct those files that are now missing. I hold the NRP * * * responsible for filing formal charges and investigating this matter. However, to this date, they have done nothing to resolve this very important issue after a formal request was given to them. Isn’t it ironic that the ED at that time (Jana) is currently the ED of another neighborhood group that receives NRP funds? I am wondering when the NRP office will start holding individuals accountable for their actions. Frankly, I don’t see it happening under the current operation of the NRP. We must have reform and we should start holding people accountable for public money that is clearly misappropriated.

By an order dated October 2, 2001, the district court granted summary judgment dismissing the bulk of Metge’s claims. Later that month, Metge entered into a settlement agreement that settled all of her claims against CNIA and all individually named defendants, except that “Metge preserve[d] her cause of action against Ba-sim Sabri for his individual conduct not as *495 a director of CNIA.” 1 On October 31, 2001, the district court entered its order for judgment dismissing all of Metge’s claims against Sabri and incorporating its order and memorandum of October 2, 2001. Metge appeals.

ISSUES

1. Did the district court err in granting summary judgment in favor of Sabri on Metge’s defamation claims?

2. Did the district court and does this court have subject-matter jurisdiction over Metge’s claims of tortious interference with contract?

3. Did the district court err in granting summary judgment in favor of Sabri on Metge’s claims of tortious interference with contract?

ANALYSIS

On appeal from summary judgment, we determine whether there are genuine issues of material fact and whether the district court erred in its application of the law. Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.03; State by Cooper v. French,

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Bluebook (online)
649 N.W.2d 488, 19 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 436, 2002 Minn. App. LEXIS 975, 2002 WL 1902329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metge-v-central-neighborhood-improvement-assn-minnctapp-2002.