Mark Gettner brought this defamation action in the Superior Court of Fulton County against VNU Business Media, Inc. in connection with a report in a VNU publication that Gettner had been demoted after poor performance. After a hearing, the trial court granted VNU’s motion for summary judgment, and Gettner appeals. Because there is evidence sufficient to create a jury issue on each essential element of Gettner’s defamation claim against VNU, as we have explained below in Division 1, we reverse the trial court’s order to the extent it granted summary judgment in favor of VNU. In the same action, Gettner also sued his former employer, the advertising agency Fitzgerald & Company “F&C”, and its chief executive officer, David Fitzgerald, for invasion of privacy, based on Fitzgerald’s conversation with a VNU reporter about Gettner’s demotion and based on F&C’s alleged appropriation of Gettner’s name and likeness. As we have explained below in Divisions 2 and 3, we agree with the trial court’s determination that F&C and Fitzgerald are entitled to summary judgment and, therefore, affirm the trial court’s ruling in that respect. To prevail at summary judgment under OCGA § 9-11-56, the moving party must demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, warrant judgment as a matter of law. A defendant may do this by showing the court that the documents, affidavits, depositions and other evidence in the record reveal that there is no evidence sufficient to create a jury issue on at least one essential element of plaintiff’s case. . . . If the moving party discharges this burden, the nonmoving party cannot rest on its pleadings, but rather must point to specific evidence giving rise to a triable issue. Citations, punctuation, and footnote omitted. Schofield Interior Contractors v. Standard Bldg. Co. , 293 Ga. App. 812, 813 668 SE2d 316 2008.
Viewed in the light most favorable to Gettner, the record shows the following. In 1999, Gettner went to work for F&C as a Group Creative Director to lead one of three creative teams. After Jim Paddock, F&C’s Executive Creative Director, retired, Fitzgerald promoted Gettner to fill that vacancy, which ranked at the senior vice president level, effective April 2001. According to Gettner, by July 2002, he decided he did not want to continue acting as the Executive Creative Director because he did not “want to deal with all the nuances that were not part of the creative process,” such as hiring and managing subordinates. Gettner discussed his decision with Fitzgerald, and Fitzgerald agreed to allow him to return to his former position of Group Creative Director.
