"A Philadelphia judge has tossed out of court the defamation action brought against Cozen O’Connor by a Main Line building fortune heir. A dispute over family money prompted legal action by Lincoln Meyers’ mother and a bank from which he had taken out several loans.
At one point, Meyers alleged, the lawyer for his mother talked with the lawyer for his bank, and the result, Meyers suggested, was an unwarranted amount of trouble for him.
But in dismissing Meyers v. Sovereign Bank, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Matthew D. Carrafiello wrote that Meyers’ conduct in the case "should be embarrassing to him" and that the defendants "have only disseminated the truth to those who had a privilege to receive it."
In granting the defense summary judgment, Carrafiello effectively rejected Meyers’ reliance on a 2004 precedent from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in which the justices held that a lawyer who sent a copy of a complaint to a newspaper could not claim an absolute judicial privilege to shield himself from liability in a defamation suit "