If my manager at subway thinks I stole $40 which i didn’t and is threatening to take legal action and fire me can I counter sue for slander?

Question

I have worked at subway for about 2 weeks and my manager thinks I stole $40 ($60 went missing originally so idk why she’s saying $40 now). She left a note on my paycheck saying it needs to be found or paid back or else my job is on the line as well as legal action. If i am fired without any proof of me “stealing” can I sue for slander? This is only my second job and if I am fired for stealing with won’t look good on my job history. I am located in Tennessee

Answer 1

You can always sue. But as you describe it you'll lose. Slander has several tests; that what was said about you is false, that was said about you was made public, and that what was said about you was said to purposely discredit your reputation. You'd lose on the second and third tests because as you've reported it none of what the mgr did was about ruining your reputation or made public.



You might want to consider suing based on discrimination. Are you over 45 yo, are you gay, are you a minority...and so on. If you are any one or more of these protected categories, you might have a discrimination case.

Answer 2

There's no law say manager can't made up story about why fire you.



Lawsuit? Nah too much trouble, takes too long, too little money from judgment rewards or settlement. You would make more money if you work somewhere else than what you would have make from lawsuits.

Answer 3

You can file a lawsuit for any reason at any time. It doesn't mean it will get you anywhere. Most frivolous lawsuits -- and I do mean most, like 99.9% of them -- get tossed before a deposition is even taken.



Slander, or libel, requires YOU to prove that what she said about you is NOT true. In other words, she says you stole $40. You need to prove that you didn't, she doesn't need to prove that you did. You also need to prove that her accusing you thus has damaged you in some real, tangible way, not just that it hurt your feelings.



So what damages have you sustained by her accusing you of stealing $40? Did she tell the whole world you stole $40 and now you can't get a job? You would have to prove that. There's really only one way to do that. You would have to prove that every employer from whom you sought employment didn't hire you specifically because your boss told them you stole $40. In reality, there might be 10,000 reasons why a future employer refused to hire you, none of which has to do with an accusation of a $40 theft. It's almost impossible to prove.



Now let's say you file a lawsuit and it actually doesn't get dismissed by a judge for being a frivolous suit. You will spend upwards of $250,000 getting to court. You don't have to hire a lawyer, but you do have to pay your own costs all the way through. You will have to go to court multiple times for multiple motions before you even get to the deposition stage.



You will have to conduct discovery, and you will have to have a whole mess of depositions, and depos cost upwards of $5000 each because the people who show up still get to get paid, like the court reporter and videographer, and we are not negotiable. You don't just get to skip depos beacuse they're expensive. Even if YOU wanted to skip depos, I guarantee you that Subways won't. Subways' lawyers will be deployed, and you can bet they will spend you into oblivion just by following the law.



Here's the thing: Judges can't award principle of the thing. They can only award what you have actually financially lost. You must prove that you actually financially lost something, not that you were merely inconvenienced or your feelings were hurt. You're going to have to prove this to either a judge or a jury. And if you can't, you're sunk and way deep in debt.



Let me give you some advice: Don't get so wrapped up in your own offense that you shoot yourself in the foot.



If you took the $40, give it back. If you didn't, she still has a good reason for accusing you thus. Bort is right. If she is accusing you, it's because the $40 went missing on your shift. Whether you took the $40 or not is incidental. You are responsible for the register. That means you are responsible for the $40.

Answer 4

Of course you can sue. So far, you have not described any slander. Slander must be heard and believed by some third party, resulting in financial harm, for you to have aclaim

Answer 5

Subway would not even consider such legal action unless there is PROOF. If you stole nothing, there will be no proof, so I highly doubt Subway would attempt such legal action that will cost them a helluva lot more than $40.00.



You cannot sue for slander unless you have proven documents of measurable loses due to the negative spoken words of others.

Answer 6

You did it ans she has proof. Do you realize how prevalent cameras are all over the work place these days? So instead of being a smart mouth with all the "no proof" get it together and get on your knees she did not just call the police straight away. She is trying to help you fool.



PS Quentin copied and pasted curtisports reply the last time you ask!

Answer 7

No you cannot sue for slander or anything else. You are being accused most likely because it happened on your shift when you were responsible for the cash register and transactions so whether you did it or not, you are responsible.



Your best course of action is to pay it back and when you do pay it inform the manager that you paying it isn't because you're admitting to doing it you're paying it because your job and your work history is important to you as well as include that you truly didn't do it.



Then find another job.

Answer 8

You could try but would have to prove your weren't responsible as their is no presumption of innocence in civil court. So proving you didn't do something is far more difficult. Then you would need to prove your damages and not the loss of income from your job, but the damage to your reputation. Because your boss conveyed this message to you privately that would be extremely difficult for you too.

Answer 9

Good luck finding a lawyer who is willing to represent you for such a small amount

Answer 10

sue her, call cops for harassment

Answer 11

Tell her to prove it!

Answer 12

$40 or $60 does not matter, only that the register was short that amount of money.



The cameras over all registers are there for a reason, to watch for any theft. Now the other way to prove the shortage is when the register is counted out, thus found to be short the money. So, you could have (overpaid) someone or gave out too much change. Or another possibility is that you did NOT collect the money for an order, thus would be short.



So, the boss has on video of you stealing, or that you overpaid or did not collect for a customer, thus short. Now, (unless) they don't count the drawers (before and after) you leave, or if, another worker is also on the same register, then if more than 1 person, then is difficult to prove which (person) is responsible.

Answer 13

You need to give that money back

Answer 14

Tell her to take a 12 inch sub and shove it up her ***.

Answer 15

They won't spend thousands of dollars on court fees for $40. It's a bluff

Answer 16

Find a new job

Answer 17

Yes, you can countersue for your damages - medical bills, lost wages. If she is deliberately lying, then there are other charges you could file.



Of course, if you sue her and it turns out that she has proof you were stealing, then she countersues you and collects for her damages.

Answer 18

Ask her for proof that you stole the money. If she has none, go over her head. If there’s no one over her, I’d say find another job. I’m sure you can find something comparable at another restaurant in your area. If I didn’t steal and was then accused of it, I wouldn’t want to work at that place anymore. How long have you worked there? You don’t necessarily have to put this place on your resume. There are always ways to explain gaps on your resume and if you left your previous job on good terms, you could use someone from that place in the event that you need a reference.



You can sue for anything you want, but that takes a lot of time and money and wouldn’t be worth it over $40 in my opinion. It’s not exactly slander either, unless she’s telling multiple people and lying just to damage your reputation. Slander is very hard to prove anyway.



Good luck to you.

Answer 19

Sue the b itch and slash her tires and key her car!

Answer 20

You can legally "sue" anyone by simply filing a complaint in civil court. Whether you have a valid case or they have defenses are other circumstances that would depend upon proof. You can generally be fired for no reason. You can also sue "for no reason", but why bother?



Also: Telling you privately that they believe you are a thief is not slander or libel.

Answer 21

Saying it to YOU isn't slander, it's when they started saying publicly to others. They can fire you for whatever reason they want, but generally they won't tell you why.

Answer 22

Not successfully.



They can fire you at any time, for any reason, no proof needed.

Answer 23

not easily. you need an attorney. in general, filing suit against someone is not slander, even if the suit is lost.

Answer 24

no, but if you didn't do it and you get fired, you could sue for wrongful termination.

Answer 25

Please refer to the last time you asked this question.