Lampooned homeowners might get the last laugh

Question: My brother, who is employed as an association manager, brought some pictures to a family gathering of a yearly event he attended with a bunch of other managers. I was shocked when the pictures showed the manager of my development dressed up as my neighbor. The neighbor’s name was written on a piece of paper safety-pinned to the front and back of the manager’s “costume.”

My brother said this is a big event where all the managers get together and dress up as an “owner of their choosing.” They then put on skits that make fun of the person they are mimicking. A video he took showed managers acting as if they were the owners that they dressed up as, including my neighbor. Prizes are awarded to the manager with the best rendition of the owner’s likeness and character.

I told him I thought the entire event was scandalous. He said it was just a joke and justified his participation by saying it was all in fun and satire.

I will tell my neighbor about this, but can anything happen to my brother for participating in this event?

Answer: In situations like these, courts will not likely recognize the “it was just a joke” defense if it comes to that. The owners depicted certainly will not take the managers’ annual event of fun and satire as a joke.

In the case of private individuals, slander involves holding the individual in hatred, contempt or ridicule and publishing that slander to other people. If the skits that the managers performed using the likeness and character of owners held them up to ridicule within their community, those owners could have been defamed.

The purpose of the skits was to make fun of private individuals. As evidenced by a manager dressing up as your neighbor, that occurrence was intentional. Using your neighbor’s name and then “acting like” that owner could help prove this was no joke but a deliberate act designed to disparage or ridicule that homeowner. Liability could attach to all those acts.

Without regard for anything else, the public disclosure of an individual’s private information that was obtained in confidence from one’s employer (the association) may be actionable all by itself.

California’s constitution includes a basic right to privacy for individuals. Here, your neighbor’s right to privacy appears to have been violated. The choice to single out and ridicule this particular owner could only have been based on private information in possession of the association from knowledge obtained by association agents.

The use of that information and the neighbor’s name and likeness could hold not only the management company but also the homeowners association up to charges of violating the owner’s privacy rights in addition to slander.

Any blame attached to the manager is transferred to the association, meaning that any damages due the homeowner would come from association funds.

Whether the skits and statements were harmless jokes or harmful injuries to reputation may ultimately be for a judge to determine.

The annual event arguably could end up being one of the most costly expenditures for those associations whose managers participate in the frolic.

In this situation, the joke appears to be at the expense of the association and its members, and it is no laughing matter.

Send questions to P.O. Box 11843, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 or e-mail noexit@mindspring.com.