Exposed (Rosato & DiNunzio #5)(43)

“I just feel so helpless. Like everywhere I turn, I can’t do anything. With Rachel, with this litigation. I know it’s a cliché, that you feel so helpless, but anybody who has a sick child, they know what it’s like. Your kid’s crying and there’s nothing you can do, when they beg and they plead and they ask you to stop sticking them with needles and they want to go home. They ask, over and over, Rachel does, she asks me, she asks my father, ‘Zayde, when can I go home?’” Simon’s voice broke, but he held it together. “And there’s nothing you can do.”

“Aw, Simon.” Mary hugged him again. “So why don’t you sit down while I read this? Just try to collect your thoughts, or do you want a water or anything? I’m sure I can get you one.”

“No thanks, I’m fine. I don’t know how much time we have to talk, I might have to go in with Rachel. My dad and everybody are in the cafeteria, and I don’t like to leave her alone.” Simon flopped into a bucket chair and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “Ellen used to say, ‘do your Lamaze breathing.’”

“Good idea. You keep breathing and let me take a quick look at this.” Mary flipped through the complaint, which set forth two civil causes of action against Simon: first, that he was liable for slander because he had defamed Todd Eddington on two occasions, and secondly, that he had committed trade libel against OpenSpace. Coburn must be pulling out all the stops because trade libel was a relatively rare tort, similar to defamation of a company.

“Will you read that thing! It’s ridiculous! He’s claiming I said he didn’t care about Rachel, that he was heartless, which I never ever said, I swear to you.”

“I understand,” Mary said, modulating her tone to calm him down, even though she was furious inside. She couldn’t believe that OpenSpace was retaliating at Simon so viciously. It was an overreaction, and she suspected it had something to do with Nate’s anger at her taking the representation, or something personal between him and Bennie. Or both.

Mary read the first set of factual allegations aloud:

In a conversation on February 16, Defendant Simon Pensiera defamed Plaintiff Todd Eddington by stating to Raymond Matewicz, Operations Manager at OpenSpace, that: “Todd doesn’t care about Rachel at all,” “Todd has no heart and only cares about money,” and “Todd is jealous of my abilities and all of the attention I’m getting because of Rachel’s cancer.”

Mary looked down at Simon. “Who is this Ray Matewicz and what do you have to do with him?”

“I don’t have anything to do with him.” Simon looked up plaintively, his chin in his hands. “Ray runs the plant, and I talk to him from time to time but we don’t talk about Todd. I never said anything bad about Todd, not at all. Why would I badmouth my boss to a guy I hardly know? I’m not that stupid!” Simon raked a hand through his hair. “Besides I don’t think Todd is jealous of me. The only thing I think is that he fired me to save the company Rachel’s medical expenses, that’s it! Otherwise I don’t give him a second thought. I have enough to think about!”

“I believe you, I know.” Mary turned the page, and there was another set of factual allegations in support of the defamation claim, which she read aloud again:

In a conversation on March 22, Defendant Simon Pensiera defamed Plaintiff Todd Eddington by stating to Ernie Greeley, Director of Security at OpenSpace, that, “Todd doesn’t care if Rachel lives or dies. The only thing he cares about is the numbers.”

Mary looked at Simon. “Tell me about this Ernie Greeley.”

“Same deal,” Simon said defensively, throwing his hands up in the air. “Ernie does plant security. Makes sure we’re locked up at night. Makes sure there’s no fighting on the floor. Sends somebody home if they come in drunk. I have nothing to do with him, either.”

“Do you ever talk to him?”

“Rarely, the only time I ever talked to him was, like, one or two times when I smoked out back by the loading docks”—Simon looked up sheepishly—“I know, I know, I quit a long time ago for Ellen, but lately, there have been times when I really needed a cigarette.”

“It’s okay, Simon.” Mary didn’t smoke but she wasn’t about to judge him, considering what he was going through. Anyway, carbohydrates were her chosen addiction.

“So Ernie would be out back grabbing a smoke, and we would talk about sports or whatever. But I swear to you, I never said anything about Todd.”

“Understood, okay. Let me see what else this thing says.” Mary returned her attention to the complaint, turned the page, and read ahead to the factual allegations to support the claim of trade libel, which she also read aloud, so he could respond:

In a conversation on April 19, Defendant Simon Pensiera stated to Raymond Matewicz and Ernie Greeley that he had told one of his accounts that, “The quality control had fallen off the table in OpenSpace’s top-of-the-line cubicles and that OpenSpace was ripping off its best customers,” and defendant also told the two men that the account, which he declined to specify by name or location, had therefore failed to order more cubicles.

Simon moaned. “I never said that either. I never said anything like that. Sometimes I worry about quality control and I wrote an email to HR or Ray about that, but I’ve never said it to a client and I never would. We have so much competition and I’d never run down our product outside. I’m in sales, for God’s sake.”