Case ID: f-appx_604/html/0560-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

John A. GUIDICE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. James L. PRIEST; Indyne, Inc., named as Indyne/WROIC, Defendants-Appellees.
    No. 13-56240.
    United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
    Submitted May 13, 2015.
    
    Filed May 19, 2015.
    John A. Guidice, Santa Maria, CA, pro se.
    Patrick Joseph Cain, Esquire, Principal Litigation Counsel Rodi Pollock Pettker Christian & Pramov, Los Angeles, CA, for Defendants-Appellees.
    Before: LEAVY, CALLAHAN, and M. SMITH, Circuit Judges.
    
      
       The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R.App. P. 34(a)(2).
    
   MEMORANDUM

John A. Guidice appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing his defamation action arising from events that occurred on Vandenberg Air Force Base. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo a dismissal for failure to state a claim, Pride v. Correa, 719 F.3d 1130, 1133 (9th Cir.2013), and we affirm.

The district court properly dismissed Guidice’s defamation claim because Priest’s statement that Guidice shouted is not actionable. See Taus v. Loftus, 40 Cal.4th 683, 54 Cal.Rptr.3d 775, 151 P.3d 1185, 1209 (2007) (setting forth elements of a defamation claim and explaining that an expression of opinion cannot form the basis of a defamation action); Grillo v. Smith, 144 Cal.App.3d 868, 193 Cal.Rptr. 414, 417 (1983) (“The words ‘angry,’ ‘shouted,’ [and] ‘stormed,’ ... fall clearly on the opinion side of the line. They are subjective words ... of the sort which have been found to be opinion as a matter of law frequently in the past.”).

AFFIRMED. 
      
       This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.