Title: Cofield v. ADVERTISER COMPANY

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

486 So. 2d 434 (1986)
Keenan COFIELD
v.
The ADVERTISER COMPANY, et al.
85-432.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
March 28, 1986.
Keenan Cofield, pro se.
M.R. Nachman, Jr., and William A. Shashy, of Steiner, Crum & Baker, Montgomery, for appellees.
FAULKNER, Justice.
Keenan Cofield, an inmate confined to the West Jefferson Correctional Facility, Bessemer, Alabama, filed a libel action against the Advertiser Company, Alvin Benn, the author of an allegedly libelous story that appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser; Doyle Harvil, the newspaper's publisher; and Mike Forster, the managing editor. Against the Advertiser Company, Cofield sought $10 million as punitive damages, and $7.5 million in compensatory damages. Against the reporter, Benn, he claimed $10 million in punitive damages. In claiming compensatory damages against Benn, he dropped the amount just a tad and claimed only $5 million.
*435 The allegedly libelous article written by Benn was headlined "Inmate Files Suit Claiming State Official Raped Him." The lead sentence, under a Selma dateline, was: "A State prisoner who once sued a newspaper for printing his obituary has filed a second lawsuit against Mental Health officials, including one he claims seduced him at the Dallas County Jail." The article further quoted public officials as stating that the lawsuit was frivolous.
In reading Cofield's complaint, it is apparent to us that he did not appreciate reading his obituary in a newspaper, and as against Benn, he is quite incensed to have his lawsuit called frivolous, and especially did not like that part of the article calling his suit a "classic example" of a frivolous lawsuit.
Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, asserting, among other grounds, that Cofield was a public figure (apparently, Cofield has been in prison much of his lifehe has been convicted on five charges of theft), and that the statements written in the newspaper article were privileged under the holding of New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710, 11 L. Ed. 2d 686 (1964). The trial judge granted the motion, dismissed the action, and taxed the costs against Cofield.
The trial judge stated that although he was impressed with the defenses of the defendants, it was unnecessary that they be considered, and held:
We adopt the trial judge's holding and affirm.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C.J., and ALMON, BEATTY and HOUSTON, JJ., concur.