Saying Co-Worker "Looked Like a Homeless Prostitute" Is Opinion, Can't Be Defamation

So Magistrate Judge Maria Aguilera (D. Ariz.) correctly concluded today in Sanchez v. Flores:

[A]s alleged, the statement was nonactionable hyperbole. The words "looked like" in particular "tend to negate the implication that [the statement] convey[ed] objective facts."

Comments

[Krayt]

Oh, cool! Politicians look like corrupt, thieving, palace-dwelling disreputable fraudsters up to no good!

[Michael P]

I feel sorry for all the people here who comment like homeless prostitutes.

[Lee Moore]

Long long ago, the corporation which had the honor to employ me at the time, decided to ban smoking in its head office. Consequently those secretaries* who were least enthusiastic about giving up, had to go down to the 1st floor, and have a quick smoke while hanging around outside the entrance. Consequently there would always be a gaggle of young to middle aged gals having a quick smoke near the main door.

A visiting Japanese customer, with whom I was meeting, mentioned his puzzlement that we did not bother to shoo away the prostitutes he'd noticed hanging around our main entrance.

* for the youthful VCers, a secretary was a type of employee (almost always female) hired to answer phone calls and type out memos etc. And occasionally marry the boss.

Now of course we do things more efficiently by having the $500,000 a year folk keep their own schedules, answer their own phones and type their own memos.