Gorilla Coffee Sues New York Times, Eight Ex-Employees
Park Slope's Gorilla Coffee is suing eight former employees, one reporter and the New York Times Company for the "preparation and publication of [a] false, defamatory, malicious and libelous article," according to the Fucked in Park Slope blog. The offending Times journalism was published on April 11 on the Diner's Journal blog in a post entitled "Gorilla Coffee Workers Aren't Coming Back," and alleged a "perpetually malicious, hostile, and demeaning work environment" under owner Carol McLaughlin. 
The initial blog post was followed by another, about the shop's reopening, and four days later, a full article in the print edition, which repeated the anonymous claim of a negative work environment and likened the owner to "a drill sergeant." But who likes their boss anyway?
The complaint filed by Gorilla Coffee's two owners, McLaughlin and Darleen Scerer, alleges:
...that as a result of the false and injurious e-mail which was printed, published and circulated by NYT, the content of which was furnished by the individual defendants, with express and implied malice and with design and intent to injure Gorilla in its good name and reputation, Gorilla seeks punitive damages against all defendants, jointly and severally, for their egregious, wanton, reckless and negligent conduct, in a sum to be determined upon the trial of this action.
Without the appropriate legal knowledge to make such a prediction, let's go ahead and guess, because journalism is usually protected from this sort of thing, that McLaughlin is just going to have to deal with it.
You can see the whole complaint here.
COFFEE WARS: Gorilla Coffee Is Suing The NYT AND Former Employees (!?) [Fucked in Park Slope via Gothamist]
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