Man's slander and defamation claims are dismissed

Lindsay Clark Ross sued Tony Andreski, claiming that Andreski may have burned down his home, that he had acquired access to his property by a prescriptive easement over Andreski's property, and that Andreski slandered him when firefighters arrived to fight the fire that destroyed the home. The trial court summarily dismissed all of Ross's claims and on appeal the trial judge's decision was upheld.

The prescriptive easement claim was dismissed because the court held that when Ross began using the easement in 1993, he did not adequately advise Andreski that his use was hostile to Andreski's ownership.  It dismissed the fire-related claims based on lack of evidence beyond Ross's belief that Andreski arrived on the scene suspiciously quickly.

With regard to the slander claim, the Court ruled that there was no evidence of slander or defamation.  The firefighter who allegedly originally told Ross that Andreski had warned responders that Ross was associated with the Unabomber and dangerous had now signed an affidavit that rendered the account of what was said less defamatory. Therefore, the judges ruled that Ross was not entitled to a hearing on the that issue.