Ballard v. Wagner [1]

Navy officer Alan J. Ballard sued Christopher Wagner and the National Association of Government Employees, Local R01-077, after Wagner, then-president of Local R01-077, published a website subtitled "When telling the truth hurts[:] Dedicated to Exposing Lies at Naval Air Station, Brunswick."  According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press [2]: "The site published statements by Ballard that he did not see a proposed contract with union employees, and that an oil leak at an on-base child care center had been repaired. The word 'Lie' was handwritten in the margins next to both statements."

Ballard filed suit in Superior Court in Sagadahoc County, Maine.  After a bench trial, the court ruled in favor of Ballard, awarding him $75,000 in compensatory damages and $20,000 in punitive damages.  Wagner and the union appealed, and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the lower court's ruling in 2005.  The high court concluded that Wagner had made statements of fact, not opinion, when he characterized Ballard's statements about problems at the base as "lies."