• Defamation

    An Invited Fax is Not a Defamatory Publication

    If you’re worried about what someone might say about you in a fax sent to your office, better keep an eye on your fax machine — at least if you gave the sender reasons to think they could fax you there regarding certain matters. It is just such an invitation — two of them, really — that lost plaintiff her defamation case in Martinelli v. International House USA, case no. B197536 (2d Dist. Apr. 11, 2008). Plaintiff was an attorney whose family also operated an insurance agency and whose niece from Italy was visiting the U.S. on a student visa. Plaintiff enrolled her niece in English classes at defendant International…