Winglet Technology, LLC, et al. v. United States
1. Where the FAA disowned as verifiably false its
employee's defamatory statements about petitioners and
questioned his decision to publish them in the first place,
are petitioners entitled to limited discovery to show that
when the employee defamed them, he was not serving
any interest of his FAA master but acting only out of
personal spite and to "teach petitioners a lesson?"
2. Should this Court resolve the conflict among the
Circuits about the standard for assessing when a plaintiff
is entitled to limited discovery to challenge the
government's certification under the Westfall Act (28
U.S.C. § 2679) that its employee was acting within the
scope of his employment when he committed the alleged
tortious conduct?
Where the FAA disowned as verifiably false its employee's defamatory statements about petitioners and questioned his decision to publish them in the first place, are petitioners entitled to limited discovery to show that when the employee defamed them, he was not serving any interest of his FAA master but acting only out of personal spite and to 'teach petitioners a lesson?