Title: Gobin v. Globe Publishing Co.

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

232 Kan. 1 (1982)
649 P.2d 1239
GARY DEAN GOBIN, Appellee,
v.
GLOBE PUBLISHING CO., A Corporation, Appellant.
No. 53,852

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed August 31, 1982.
Gerrit H. Wormhoudt, of Wichita, argued the cause, and Harry A. Waite, of Dodge City, was with him on the brief for appellant.
Donald E. Shultz, of Shultz, Shultz & Tedford, P.A., of Dodge City, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
MILLER, J.:
This is a libel action brought by Gary Dean Gobin *2 against the Globe Publishing Company, publisher of the Dodge City Daily Globe, arising out of a report of court proceedings published in the Daily Globe on July 8, 1972. The case has previously been before this court twice. See Gobin v. Globe Publishing Co. (Gobin I), 216 Kan. 223, 531 P.2d 76 (1975), and Gobin v. Globe Publishing Co. (Gobin II), 229 Kan. 1, 620 P.2d 1163 (1980).
Plaintiff's petition alleges that the defendant's publication of a news story that he pled guilty to a charge of cruelty to animals was false, libelous and defamatory to him, and was published maliciously and in reckless disregard of his rights and reputation. The trial court initially sustained the publisher's motion for summary judgment, holding that the publication was privileged. In Gobin I, we discussed our earlier cases and the recent opinions of the United States Supreme Court, particularly Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 41 L. Ed. 2d 789, 94 S. Ct. 2997 (1974); Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1094, 87 S. Ct. 1975, reh. denied 389 U.S. 889 (1967); and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 11 L. Ed. 2d 686, 84 S. Ct. 710 (1964). In summarizing Gertz, we said:
We announced our rule as follows:
We concluded that the publication was not privileged. Under the rules stated, we reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
The action was then tried to a jury and judgment resulted in favor of the plaintiff and against Globe for $38,500. The trial court instructed the jury that the story printed in the Globe was false. The only issues submitted to the jury were those of the Globe's negligence and the amount of damages. In Gobin II, we again reversed, holding that the trial court erred in determining as a matter of law that the news story was false.
Also, in Gobin II, we were called upon to determine the propriety of the trial court's entry of an order in limine, by which evidence of Gobin's "involvement" in other criminal proceedings was excluded. We concluded that the trial court was correct in rejecting evidence of certain specific court actions, but that the effect of such actions upon Gobin's reputation was admissible. We said:
....
We remanded for a new trial. The case has now been tried a second time; a judgment in the amount of $100,000 in favor of the *4 plaintiff has been entered upon the jury's verdict. The Globe's motion for judgment non obstante verdicto or in the alternative for a new trial was argued and overruled. The defendant appeals.
A few days prior to the second trial, plaintiff again moved for an order in limine to prohibit the defendant from making any reference to or otherwise informing the jury of certain facts  a charge of negligent homicide, a charge of attempted theft of hogs, a charge by court-martial while plaintiff was in the military service, and a charge of conspiring to sell controlled substances  all brought against the plaintiff at various times, and an automobile collision case in which the plaintiff was involved. In arguing the motion, counsel for plaintiff agreed that there were three elements of damage listed in the pretrial order  damage to reputation, loss of income, and emotional distress. Counsel stated that plaintiff would no longer claim damage to reputation, and thus reputation would not be involved at trial. The trial judge sustained the motion and directed counsel for defendant not to refer to the factual items enumerated in the motion. Immediately before trial was to commence, counsel and the court discussed another civil action in which the plaintiff was involved. Plaintiff's counsel assured the court that plaintiff would make no claim for either damage to reputation or for loss of income. The trial court then included the additional civil action with those matters which defendant was precluded from mentioning in the presence of the jury. The only element of damages left in the case, and the one upon which evidence was presented and the case was submitted to the jury, was plaintiff's claim for damages for emotional distress. There was no evidence of malice, knowledge by defendant of falsity, or reckless disregard for the truth; the case was tried on the theory of simple negligence.
The controlling issue upon this appeal is whether damage to one's reputation is an essential ingredient in an action for defamation.
Prior to Gertz, Kansas followed the common law rule dividing libel into libel per se and libel per quod. Libel per se involved words from which malice was implied and damage was conclusively presumed to result. General damages from such a publication arose by inference of law and the plaintiff was not obliged to establish damage by proof. See Koerner v. Lawler, 180 Kan. 318, 304 P.2d 926 (1956); Bennett v. Seimiller, 175 Kan. 764, 267 P.2d *5 926 (1954); Hatfield v. Printing Co., 103 Kan. 513, 175 Pac. 382 (1918), 3 A.L.R. 1276; and Eckert v. VanPelt, 69 Kan. 357, 76 Pac. 909 (1904). In Bennett v. Seimiller, Justice Wedell said:
Gertz, as we pointed out in Gobin I, effected an immediate change upon the rule in Kansas and in those other states which presumed damages upon the establishment of libel per se, and permitted recovery based upon that presumption. Damages recoverable for defamation may no longer be presumed; they must be established by proof, no matter what the character of the libel.
We shall attempt to resist the temptation, as Justice Wedell suggests, "within reasonable bounds." But in order to determine the issue before us, we must explore the definition of and the basis for defamation actions.
Prosser, in his Handbook of the Law of Torts (4th ed. 1971), says:
The Kansas cases generally agree with the elements of an action for defamation as given by Prosser. In Gobin II, as noted above, we said that it is damage to one's reputation in the community for which redress is sought in defamation actions. In Froelich v. Adair, 213 Kan. 357, 360, 516 P.2d 993 (1973), we distinguished the torts of invasion of privacy and defamation; we defined the latter as a "remedy for injury to plaintiff's reputation." In Jerald v. Houston, 124 Kan. 657, 660, 261 Pac. 851 (1927), a libel action, we said:
And see Justice Burch's discussion of the value of a good reputation in the heralded libel case of Coleman v. MacLennan, 78 Kan. 711, 98 Pac. 281 (1908). See also Buckwalter v. Gossow, 75 Kan. 147, 88 Pac. 742 (1907).
We conclude that in this state, damage to one's reputation is the essence and gravamen of an action for defamation. Unless injury to reputation is shown, plaintiff has not established a valid claim for defamation, by either libel or slander, under our law. It is reputation which is defamed, reputation which is injured, reputation which is protected by the laws of libel and slander.
We are aware that the State of Florida has permitted the recovery of damages for mental anguish in a "defamation" action, *7 without a showing of damage to reputation. Time, Inc. v. Firestone, 424 U.S. 448, 47 L. Ed. 2d 154, 96 S. Ct. 958 (1976). The case has been soundly criticized. See Eaton, The American Law of Defamation Through Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. and Beyond: An Analytical Primer, 61 Va. L. Rev. 1349-1439 (1975). New York has reached exactly the opposite conclusion: Absent proof of harm to reputation, a plaintiff may not recover damages for mental anguish on a claim of defamation unless plaintiff proves malice. France v. St. Clare's Hospital & Health Center, 82 App. Div.2d 1, 441 N.Y.S.2d 79 (1981); and see Salomone v. MacMillan Pub. Co., Inc., 77 App. Div.2d 501, 429 N.Y.S.2d 441 (1980). We need not encumber our reports with lengthy quotations from these cases; the opinions are available to the interested reader. We agree with the New York rule that the plaintiff in an action for defamation must first offer proof of harm to reputation; any claim for mental anguish is "parasitic," and compensable only after damage to reputation has been established.
During the trial of the action below, plaintiff offered no evidence of harm to his reputation, no evidence of damage by reason of injury to his reputation, no proof of financial loss flowing therefrom. He cannot recover in a defamation action for mental anguish in the absence of proof of the principal injury with which a defamation action is concerned  injury to reputation. By the gambit followed here, plaintiff was able to claim and be awarded substantial damages for claimed harm to his innermost feelings, all the while preventing the jury from hearing and determining what his true reputation was in the community of his residence, and from determining whether the publication complained of damaged that reputation in the least. Defamation actions in Kansas are primarily concerned with injury to reputation, not injury to one's personal sensitivities. Injuries to the latter alone cannot support a claim for defamation.
We conclude that the trial court erred in failing to sustain defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. In view of this holding, other issues raised in the briefs need not be determined.
The judgment is reversed.
SCHROEDER, C.J., dissenting:
The issue squarely presented by this case is seldom presented to an appellate court in a libel *8 action, that is, where a plaintiff has sustained his burden of proof to show pecuniary damages as a result of the libelous publication, but sought no recovery for damage to reputation.
It is generally said in decisions on libel and slander that defamation is an invasion of the interest in reputation and good name, but the issue here was not presented in the great mass of cases written on the subject.
Prior to Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 41 L. Ed. 2d 789, 94 S. Ct. 2997 (1974), our court and many other state courts recognized libel per se. This involved words from which malice was implied and damage was conclusively presumed to result. Under that rule even a prostitute could recover damages for libel whether her reputation and good name was actually damaged or not. The plaintiff was not required to establish damage by proof.
One must ask what can be the pecuniary damage to a hog farmer's reputation when he is libeled by a publication, which prior to Gertz was a libel per se.
Reputation is nothing more than mass hearsay, and the court has taken the position that the $100,000 proven pecuniary damages to the plaintiff, established to the satisfaction of the jury, must "piggy back" on damages to mass hearsay. The text writer would say:
The general rule on damages is that mental pain and suffering in connection with a wrong which, apart from such pain and suffering, constitutes a cause of action is a proper element of damages where it is the natural and proximate consequence of the wrong. 25 C.J.S., Damages § 63.
In this case Gobin, the plaintiff hog farmer, sought no pecuniary damages to reputation at his last trial in the district court. This situation did not arise until shortly before the hearing in the trial court now on review. In Gobin v. Globe Publishing Co., 216 Kan. 223, 531 P.2d 76 (1975) (Gobin I) and Gobin v. Globe Publishing Co., 229 Kan. 1, 620 P.2d 1163 (1980) (Gobin II), the issue of damages to reputation was pled and was a viable issue in the case. Language in Gobin I and Gobin II, therefore, is not authority for the court's decision herein.
Time, Inc. v. Firestone, 424 U.S. 448, 47 L. Ed. 2d 154, 96 S.Ct. *9 958 (1976), on certiorari from the Florida Supreme Court (Firestone v. Time, Inc., 305 So. 2d 172 [Fla. 1974]) clearly establishes that Gertz does not command the decision our court is making herein. In the opinion the United States Supreme Court said:
The Florida Supreme Court is not the only court which has taken the position that actual damages in a libel action need not be parasitic to actual damage to reputation. In Freeman v. Cooper, 390 So. 2d 1355 (La. App. 1980), an attorney sued for libel and failed to show his professional reputation had been injured. The Court of Appeal of Louisiana held mental suffering *10 alone, or only injured feelings which must inevitably be inferred from libelous statements, can be made the basis of a damage award.
The law adopted by the court in this case is discriminatory in that it does not protect persons libeled whose reputation cannot be damaged.
It is respectfully submitted the judgment of the lower court should be affirmed on the point covered by the Court's opinion.