Mamou

Plaintiff Tamer Mamou sued his former employer, Trendwest Resorts, Inc. (Trendwest), charging it with employment discrimination on account of his Syrian national origin and with retaliation for his resistance, as he alleged, to his supervisors’ stated plans to discriminate against employees taking sick leave. Mamou also alleged that Trendwest defamed him by telling former coworkers that he had been discharged for theft and poor performance and was continuing to engage in reprehensible conduct by using misappropriated customer information to compete with Trendwest. Trendwest moved for summary judgment, relying pervasively on the premise that the decision to dismiss Mamou was made not by his immediate supervisors, who might have possessed the requisite discriminatory or retaliatory motives, but by more remote managerial officers as to whom there was no evidence of any such motive. Trendwest also contended that any defamatory statements its managers might have made were shielded by the statutory privilege for statements between persons with a common interest in the subject matter. The trial court granted the motion and entered judgment for Trendwest. We hold that this was…