Hyland v. Raytheon Tech. Servs. Co.

Hyland v. Raytheon Tech. Servs. Co.

Opinion

 [*42]   [**748]  OPINION BY JUSTICE BARBARA MILANO KEENAN

In this defamation action, we consider whether the circuit court, upon our remand of the case, erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants after considering isolated factual segments of two allegedly defamatory statements.

In 2003, Cynthia L. Hyland brought several claims against her former employer, Raytheon Technical Services Company (Raytheon) and its president, Bryan J. Even. In the claims involved in this appeal, Hyland asserted that her supervisor, Even, made certain defamatory statements concerning Hyland's job performance. Raytheon and Even filed grounds of defense asserting, among other things, that Hyland was not entitled to damages because the alleged statements were true.

The case proceeded to a jury trial. At the trial, the evidence showed that Hyland worked for Raytheon for about 21 years and eventually became senior vice president and general manager of a certain division  [***2] in the company.

 [*43]  In 2000, Hyland's division lost its bid for a large government contract. Despite this loss, Even provided Hyland with a positive job performance evaluation.

In 2002, Hyland's division lost another large government contract bid. After this loss, Even reorganized Raytheon and appointed Hyland as senior vice president and general manager of a larger business unit, which was comprised of Hyland's former division and two additional units.

Raytheon later hired a consulting firm to conduct assessments of the job performance of certain executive-level employees. As part of these assessments, Hyland provided both positive and negative comments about Even's leadership skills. Although the consulting firm had assured Hyland that her comments would be kept confidential, Even later learned about Hyland's critical remarks. At the time of Hyland's next performance evaluation, Even for the first time rendered a negative assessment of Hyland's job performance. Even later terminated Hyland's employment.

During the trial, the circuit court denied the motions to strike raised by Raytheon and Even (collectively, Raytheon) and submitted Hyland's defamation claim to the jury on five allegedly  [***3] defamatory statements. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Hyland, and the circuit court later entered final judgment awarding Hyland $ 1,850,000, which included $ 350,000 in punitive damages. ¹ 

Full case includes Shepard's, Headnotes, Legal Analytics from Lex Machina, and more.