Others First, Inc. v. Better Business Bureau, No. 15-2184 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseOthers First filed suit against the BBB, alleging tort claims for injurious falsehood based on alleged falsehoods contained in a news release, and for interference with business expectancy. The district court granted summary judgment for BBB. The court concluded that the district court properly granted summary judgment on the tortious interference claim where Others First failed to submit sufficient evidence to show that the BBB employed improper means to further its own interests; Others First failed to plead alleged defamatory statements with the particularity required by Missouri law; and the district court properly granted summary judgment dismissing Others First’s claim of injurious falsehood because all of the challenged statements were either true statements of fact or protected opinion, and properly granted summary judgment dismissing the tortious interference claim given the absence of wrongful defamation. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Gruender and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Torts. Plaintiff failed to state a claim for tortious interference as it could not establish that defendant used improper means to advance its own interests; under Missouri law, for a statement to be actionable as an injurious falsehood, it must be defamatory, and plaintiff failed to plead the alleged defamatory statements with the necessary particularity; in any event, the statements plaintiff relied on were either true statements of fact or protected opinion and were not defamatory as a matter of law.
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