Living in a 3 bedroom apartment with 5 other girls, all of which were younger then me, not married and still in college or just draduated. On Saturday October 9th 2 of the roommates and I got in a heated discussion, there was no yelling, just I called them a b**** and they called me the same. Later that evening I was on the phone with my spouse in a different room then the girls and told him about the situation that occurred earlier. During this conversation I made a statement, "Any other mother probably would have slapped the b****, but I just sat back down and did my homework." At that time there were 3 of the 5 people in the apartment, 1 of which was in the shower the other 2 in a different room then myself. They then went to our housing company and told them I made threats of harm towards them and they were afraid of me. Now 4 of the 6 girls we have been living togethor since August and hung out once, but now I do not speak or socialize with them much if at all. The other girl has been living with me as my direct roommate since June. They also told housing that they are afraid of me because I do not talk to them, which then caused me to get evicted from housing and getting me terminated from my job and losing the full-time position I was offered at the end of my internship. In addition I am not eligible for rehire for 1 year and in my personel file it says I made threats of harm towards them.

I would like to sue them for defamation (Libel and Slander) for making false oral and written statement to the housing company and a violation of my freedom of speech under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

I found a case out of NY that may relate: People v. Dietze, 75 N.Y.2d 47, 550 N.Y.S.2d 595, 549 N.E.2d 1166 (1989), under a prior harassment statute, Penal Law section 240.25 “While genuine threats of physical harm fall within the scope of the statute, such an outburst, without more, does not.”   A majority declared the statute unconstitutional on its face and stated that speech may be forbidden or penalized only if it reasonably places the recipient in fear of immediate danger of severe harm.

Hi lymoo, you have this in small claims, but it isn't actually. You describe some nitpicking going on; they took the nitpicking to the inth level and reported it. Whoever took the complaint and acted on it, must have zero tolerance.

However, I would say go ahead with it, you will need a good attorney and lots of money to take it to court. Do you have lots of money ? Because this isn't exactly going to be a cash cow, whatever you get back, if you win, will go to pay your expenses. I should say as well, do you have the time involved to carry this out ?

Tick

{Moved from Small Claims}

Were you actually evicted or just asked to move and did? If evicted was there a hearing?

The issue here is whether there was sufficient evidence to make them believe there were threats. If you were evicted legally because of threats, then that could be brought up at a slander trial and you would probably lose.

You need to consult an attorney who can advise you whether you have a case or not.

I was evicted and there was no hearing. They called me in and said they were evicting me and I had 48 hours to move. My thing is I do not feel they have sufficient evidence and they cannot prove I was talking about them or I was threatening them.

I was going to take the girls to small claims court and once I got that judgment I was going to take the Housing Company of which I would go after a lot more (lost wages) and get an attorney. I also will get an attorney for the girls.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lymoo25

I was evicted and there was no hearing.

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Hello l:

Eviction is a LEGAL process and a HEARING is part of it. You were simply thrown out. You didn't have to go. Did they change the keys? Were you DENIED access to your room? The answer to those questions may determine whether you were ILLEGALLY evicted, or not.

If you were, THAT is a much stronger case against them than the other stuff, and it's EASILY proven too.

excon

No, you were asked to leave, they called it eviction,

An eviction is where you are handed legal papers, go to court and a judge rules on the eviction.

You should have merely refused to leave the apartment and/or got an attorney at that point.

Also how did that get you fired from a job

If I got terminated from housing it was a violation of my contract and terminated me from employment and accourding to my records in my personel file I violated company policy for Threats of Harm.

Yes I was denied access to my room and possessions and they changed the locks.

Hello again, l:

Sounds like an illegal eviction to me. I'd sue 'em for that. I don't know if I'd dirty up my case with the defamation stuff. You can certainly MENTION it at your hearing. It'll HELP your illegal eviction case.. But, if you make the case about slander, it'll WEAKEN your illegal eviction.

excon

First, please do not use the Comments feature to post followups. Use the Answer options instead.

As excon said you were asked to leave, not evicted.
I think you will find this site helpful:
Florida Landlord/Tenant Law Division of Consumer Services, DOACS

Among other things is this synopsis of
FL law:
Section 83.67, F.S.
Florida Law does not allow a landlord to force a tenant out by:

* Shutting off the utilities or interrupting service, even if that service is under the control of or the landlord makes payment;
* Changing the locks or using a device that denies the tenant access;
* Removing the outside doors, locks, roof, walls or windows (except for purposes of maintenance, repair or replacement); and/or
* Removing the tenant's personal property from the dwelling unless action is taken after surrender, abandonment, recovery of possession of the dwelling unit due to the death of the last remaining tenant in accordance with section 83.59(3)(d), or lawful eviction.

If any of these occur, the tenant may sue for actual and consequential damages or three months' rent, whichever is greater, plus court costs and attorney's fees.

So go get a Real Estate attorney immediately. Forget about the slander unless your attorney thinks otherwise. You have very real "actual and consequential damages" based on the landlord's action. You don't need to prove slander, you just need to prove that you were locked out.