Legal Question in Business Law in Florida

An employee working for my company hired people to work an event that was rained out, therefore I instructed him to send the extra people home so as to not incur additional expenses. He did not do this and the event went in the hole about $5,000 as a result. The employee is no longer employed by my company, therefore two of people he hired are calling me for payment, which was a verbal agreement between them and my former employee. These people are also contacting other groups that I do business with telling them that I cheated them out of their pay, which I feel is a form of slander. All of the people hired did receive partial payment for their services. I also agreed to make payments to them until paid in full, which was not acceptable. I need for the phone calls and comments to me and my other customers to cease, do I have any recourse?


Asked on 10/02/09, 3:45 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Sarah Grosse Sarah Grosse, Esquire

It appears that your employee had authority to bind your company in this type of agreement (whether the authority was express, implied, or apparent authority). It also appears that you have accepted responsibility for (ratified) the contract with the extra employees, and you have agreed to pay them (although not right away).

As for the slander (defamation), it may not be possible to stop them. Defamation is false statements of fact made to others which causes damage to you/your business. People are well within their rights to say things which are true or their own opinion. You may have some other cause of action such as tortious interference with business contracts, but that claim would not fly if based solely on people's true statements or statements of opinion, and if the people speaking do not receive any direct benefit.

Please seek an attorney to help you if you think you may have a legal claim.

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Answered on 10/08/09, 9:23 am


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