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testified that immediately following the allegation of sexual
harassment, Okabena commenced an investigation into the matter,
and each female employee at Okabena was interviewed by its
outside counsel. Petitioner testified that when the female
employees returned to the office, they were “totally pale and
really shook up”. At that point, petitioner felt his rights were
violated. Petitioner immediately hired legal counsel and
resigned the next day because he felt he no longer could manage
the employees at Okabena effectively as a result of the damage to
his reputation. The investigation, including the interviews of
employees petitioner supervised, affected petitioner’s personal
and professional reputation adversely, and his relationships with
employees quickly deteriorated.
Although petitioner could not point to a specific defamatory
comment, petitioner’s belief that he had been defamed was made in
good faith and was not frivolous. In addition, because
settlement negotiations began promptly after the harassment claim
was made and the investigation was conducted, petitioner and his
counsel had no opportunity to discover precisely what had been
said and to whom. If litigation had been filed, that opportunity
would have been available to petitioner and his counsel. The
important fact here, however, is that petitioner asserted a
nonfrivolous claim for defamation in good faith, and that claim
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