Ex-Gilead Worker Lands New Shot at Defamation Suit Over Firing

A former Gilead Sciences Inc. employee fired after a coworker said he sexually harassed her can try again to hold the company liable for the allegedly defamatory statements, the Fourth Circuit said.

The fired worker satisfied the conditions to bring into play Virginia’s presumption in favor of vicarious liability at the dismissal stage, so the district judge was wrong to throw out that portion of the suit, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said. But the lower court correctly determined it lacked personal jurisdiction over the coworker, who lives and works in California, the Tuesday unpublished opinion ...