Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/360/360mass118.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 21:01:35+00:00

Document:
JOHN W. PRIESTLEY, JR. vs. HASTINGS & SONS PUBLISHING COMPANY OF LYNN.
Present: SPIEGEL, REARDON, QUIRICO, & BRAUCHER, JJ.
TORT. Writ in the Superior Court dated October 24, 1967.
Edward J. Barshak (Stanley R. Berkowitz with him) for the defendant.
Thomas J. Carens for the plaintiff.
REARDON, J. This is an action of tort for libel stemming from the publication of three articles by the defendant in its newspaper, the Daily Evening Item (Item). The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff of $25,000. The defendant has taken exceptions alleging two errors. Both hinge on whether the "actual malice" standard articulated by the United States Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, is applicable to the case. The trial judge ruled that this standard was not applicable and subsequently denied the defendant's motion for a directed verdict. However, the recent Supreme Court decision in Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc. 403 U.S. 29, which came down after the trial of this case, makes the contrary conclusion mandatory as a matter of Federal constitutional law. The facts of the case before us bring it within the formulation contained in the Rosenbloom case of circumstances in which the "actual malice" standard is required, and under that standard the defendant's motion for a directed verdict should have been granted.
We summarize the evidence as follows. The plaintiff is an architect by profession. He was commissioned by the town of Saugus in 1965 to build a new junior high school. He testified at the trial that he acted as the official for the town with reference to this building during the period of its construction. He first worked with school officials and State agencies to evolve the final design of the school and subsequently sent out plans for the purpose of getting bids. The bids were received in behalf of the town in the presence of the plaintiff, who acted for the town in seeing that the building complied with plans and specifications. Construction of the school was completed in September, 1966, and it has been in use during the school year ever since.
On October 16, 1967, there was another selectmen's meeting at which Boucher reiterated his dissatisfaction with the school. Buell was again in attendance and wrote an article, which appeared on October 17, reporting Boucher's statements to the selectmen. Among the statements attributed to Boucher were that $200,000 in funds might have been misused and that the F. B. I. wanted to enter the case if it had jurisdiction. Buell telephoned the plaintiff the next day for his comment on Boucher's charges. The plaintiff emphatically denied them and himself charged that Boucher's investigation was "politically-motivated." The plaintiff's rebuttal duly appeared on the same day, October 18, in an article by Buell in the Item which also contained further developments in the Boucher investigation. The final allegedly libellous article appeared on October 19, after Buell had spoken to Boucher. Boucher's remarks, as recounted by Buell in this article, were more narrowly focussed on the plaintiff's alleged "illegalities, incompetence and bad faith." The article contained, inter alia, statements attributed to Boucher that he intended to seek to have the plaintiff's registration revoked by the State Board of Registration of Architects; that the district attorney's office was not investigating, only because it did not have the staff necessary; and that the manager's office had filed a complaint against the plaintiff with the American Institute of Architects' Ethics Committee.
two had had. Buell testified that he did not check the various detailed charges with respect to inadequacies in the finished school and irregularities in its construction because the school had been a subject of controversy for some months and he had previously exhausted himself checking such details. He saw no need to go through it again. He did, however, take steps to verify certain other charges reported. These steps will be dealt with in more detail below.
engaged in negotiations with city involving construction of high density housing and a new school). Lower Federal courts and this court likewise increasingly have applied the actual malice standard to publications about participants in events of public interest, regardless of their formal connection with government. See, e.g., Pauling v. Globe-Democrat Publishing Co. 362 F. 2d 188 (8th Cir.) (prominent scientist involved in promoting nuclear test ban treaty); Cepeda v. Cowles Magazines & Bdcst. Inc. 392 F. 2d 417 (9th Cir.), cert. den. 393 U.S. 840 (National League baseball player); Time, Inc. v. McLaney, 406 F. 2d 565 (5th Cir.), cert. den. sub nom. McLaney v. Time, Inc. 395 U.S. 922 (gambler involved in political campaign in another country); Tripoli v. Boston Herald-Traveler Corp. 359 Mass. 150 (janitor suspected of involvement in the "Great Plymouth Mail Robbery").
On the facts before it -- "a libel action . . . by a private individual against a licensed radio station for a defamatory falsehood in a newscast relating to his involvement in an event of public or general concern" -- the court held that the actual malice standard was applicable. P. 52. That holding clearly requires that the same standard be applied here. The publication here, as there, related to the plaintiff's involvement in an event of public or general concern. In addition, the defendant newspaper here, like the radio station there, performed much the same function of conveying news to the public under time constraints which did not permit the investigative work to which those connected with a magazine or book could more reasonably be held.
2. The evidence against the defendant in the instant case showed at most negligence and not the "knowledge that . . . [the publication] was false or . . . reckless disregard of whether it was false or not" (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, supra, at 280), which under the Rosenbloom case is constitutionally required. It was error, therefore, not to grant the defendant's motion for a directed verdict.
The first allegedly libellous article, that of October 17, was a report of a meeting of the board of selectmen. Here, as in the Greenbelt case involving reports of sessions of the city council, there was no evidence that the report was anything but "accurate and full." Given the time limit within which he was working (compare Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 157), it was not unreasonable that Buell did not call the plaintiff to comment on Boucher's charges directed at him. Other statements, such as that "$200,000 in funds may have been `misused,'" were simply not susceptible of verification in the span of a few hours.
In the October 17 article, as in the two succeeding ones, remarks of Boucher relative to the involvement of the F. B. I. in the case were reported. Buell testified that he called the F. B. I. to see what connection they had with the case, although it is not clear from the record when he did so. No negligence, much less "actual malice," is shown by the fact that having failed to elicit any information from the F. B. I. Buell proceeded to report Boucher's remarks on the subject. Nor was there any evidence presented at the trial that the remarks as reported were false; everything about the F. B. I. appearing in the three articles is consistent with the plaintiff's testimony that he had no communication with the F. B. I.
The article of October 18 consisted chiefly of the plaintiff's reply to Boucher's charges, based on Buell's telephone call to the plaintiff on that day. The fact that he made such a call is evidence of Buell's good faith and his desire to insure that both sides of the controversy be heard. Buell did not take sides on the issue but rather reported the plaintiff's remarks with the same impartiality with which he had reported Boucher's. That article also contained the information, which Buell had obtained on his own, that the district attorney's office was not investigating, as well as the information that Boucher had turned over certain facts to the F. B. I.
evidence that the statement that Boucher accused the plaintiff of "illegalities, incompetence and bad faith" was an exact quotation, and it was reported as such. It was by no means incumbent upon Buell as a reporter to inquire of Boucher what he meant by those terms. Other statements reported in which Boucher expressed his opinion of the plaintiff's ability and responsibility could not have been objectively verified; a few general statements about the condition of the school [Note 2] also probably could not have been verified in the brief time Buell had to publish the story while it was still newsworthy. Buell could have verified Boucher's statement that he had filed a complaint with the American Institute of Architects' Ethics Committee, but his failure to do so was at most negligent. In addition, as with Boucher's reported remarks about the F. B. I., there was no evidence presented at the trial that this statement was not true.
In short, the three articles together are an accurate account of a local controversy of legitimate public concern. The views of both sides were fully and accurately stated and the defendant newspaper in no way vouched for either position as correct. Most of the claims made which could feasibly have been verified by the reporter were verified. The imputations made by both Boucher and the plaintiff about the competence, conduct and good faith of the other could only be fairly and honestly reported, and this was done. There was no evidence at the trial, other than the plaintiff's own testimony, that anything contained in any of the articles was false. Under the applicable law this evidence did not warrant a verdict for the plaintiff.
[Note 1] Although the plaintiff testified that many of the statements in the October 4 article were untrue, he does not base any part of his action upon them. He complains only of the articles of October 17, 18 and 19, 1967.
[Note 2] For instance, Buell reported that Boucher said that the town was still trying to get the school in a condition acceptable to the State safety engineer, and that it would cost the town over $100,000 to correct all the defects due to poor construction, deletions, and poor judgment.

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