Case Name: Robert ARMSTRONG, et al., Appellants, v. H & C COMMUNICATIONS, INC., d/b/a Channel 2, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1991-02-21
Citations: 575 So. 2d 280
Docket Number: No. 90-381
Parties: Robert ARMSTRONG, et al., Appellants, v. H & C COMMUNICATIONS, INC., d/b/a Channel 2, Appellee.
Judges: GOSHORN, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 575
Pages: 280–284

Head Matter:
Robert ARMSTRONG, et al., Appellants, v. H & C COMMUNICATIONS, INC., d/b/a Channel 2, Appellee.
No. 90-381.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Feb. 21, 1991.
Keith R. Mitnik of Robertson, Williams, Mitnik & McDonald, P.A., Orlando, for appellants.
H. Scott Bates of Mateer, Harbert & Bates, P.A., Orlando, for appellee.

Opinion:
COBB, Judge.
This appeal concerns the trial court's determination to dismiss with prejudice the plaintiffs' first amended complaint which claimed invasion of privacy and outrage by the defendant below, Channel 2. It is axiomatic, of course, that the trial court is required to accept as true all well pled allegations in a complaint. Von Engineering Co. v. R.W. Roberts Const. Co., Inc., 457 So.2d 1080 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). Those factual allegations in the instant case are:
The six year old child of Robert and Donna Armstrong, Regina Mae Armstrong, was abducted from Orlando, Florida in June, 1985. She was wearing a sun dress at the time. In September, 1987, a construction worker in nearby Oviedo, Florida discovered a sun dress meeting the description and a child's skull. The Oviedo Police Department took possession of the sun dress and the skull, but failed to make the connection with Regina Mae until July, 1988, some ten months later, at which time the Orlando Police and the Armstrongs were notified. It was determined that the remains were those of Regina Mae.
On August 2, 1988, a memorial service was held for Regina Mae. On that same day, a reporter from Channel 2, Michelle Meredith, went to the Oviedo Police Department and asked the police chief to allow her to see Regina Mae's skull. He complied by lifting the skull from a box and displaying it to Meredith, who then asked to videotape it. She staged this by having the police chief replace the skull and again remove it from the box for the camera, and had the skull tilted for a closeup. Upon obtaining the videotape of the skull, Meredith called the Channel 2 studio and informed the 6:00 p.m. news producer, one Carolyn Reitz, that she had obtained videotape of the skull. Reitz expressed her aversion to broadcasting such a videotape, but agreed to allow Meredith to present the matter to the news director, one Steve Ramsey.
A meeting was held that afternoon at which time Reitz adamantly argued that broadcast of the skull would be offensive to the public and the Armstrong family, and would cause resentment and outrage. Anchor person Steve Rondinaro agreed with Reitz. Ramsey overruled the dissenters, stating "Fuck it! We are going to run it." At this time, no one at the station had seen the film, which was still in the field with reporter Meredith. No one bothered to review or edit the film once it arrived at the station and the editors and journalists there saw it for the first time as it was broadcast live throughout Central Florida on the 6:00 p.m. news. No one at the station made any effort to contact the Arm-strongs and warn them of the broadcast, although it is now admitted by the personnel of Channel 2 that such a call should have been made. The editors of Channel 2 also admit that the close-up of the skull was not newsworthy, was wrongfully aired, would not have been aired if properly reviewed before the broadcast, and was likely to cause resentment and outrage with members of the community and the Armstrongs. The staff of Channel 2, watching the broadcast, was dismayed and resentful. Ramsey then announced he had made a mistake by insisting on the broadcast, and said it would not recur. Another anchor person then called the Armstrong family to apologize for the broadcast.
The close-up of the skull was intentionally included to create sensationalism for the report. The close-up was gruesome and macabre, and was broadcast to thousands of viewers, including the Armstrongs. The broadcast opened with an emotional story on the memorial services with the photographs of Regina Mae and film footage of the family. Immediately following was a close-up of animal remains, originally thought to have been those of Regina Mae. Then, the cameraman cut directly to the Oviedo Police Chief removing her skull from the box, zoomed in for a frontal closeup of the tilted skull facing directly at the camera, and the audio identified the skull as that of Regina Mae Armstrong.
At the time of the broadcast, it was being watched by the unsuspecting Armstrong family. The emotional impact was devastating. Regina Mae's 12 year old sister, Christina, fled from the room screaming "that cannot be my sister." Many members of the public, including journalists and experienced police officials, have expressed outrage at the broadcast of the skull. It is alleged that Channel 2 knew or should have known that the Armstrong family members did not wish to view the skull or have it placed on display.
The independent tort of outrage has been recognized in Florida. See Kirksey v. Jernigan, 45 So.2d 188 (Fla.1950). In Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. McCarson, 467 So.2d 277 (Fla.1985), the Florida Supreme Court adopted the definition found in section 46 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965):
(d) Extreme and Outrageous Conduct.
. It has not been enough that the defendant has acted with an intent which is tortious or even criminal, or that he has intended to inflict emotional distress, or even that his conduct has been characterized by "malice," or a degree of aggravation which would entitle the plaintiff to punitive damages for another tort. Liability has been found only where the conduct has been so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community. Generally, the case is one in which the recitation of the facts to an average member of the community would arouse his resentment against the actor, and lead him to exclaim, "Outrageous!"
We have no difficulty in concluding that reasonable persons in the community could find that the alleged conduct of Channel 2 was outrageous in character and exceeded the bounds of decency so as to be intolerable in a civilized community. An average member of the community might well exclaim, "Outrageous!" Cf. Kirker v. Orange County, 519 So.2d 682 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988). Indeed, if the facts as alleged herein do not constitute the tort of outrage, then there is no such tort.
The asserted claim based on invasion of privacy is more troublesome. Even though the alleged facts constitute the tort of outrage, those facts do not necessarily constitute an invasion of privacy, a tort originally recognized in Florida in Cason v. Baskin, 155 Fla. 198, 20 So.2d 243 (1944).
Therein, the Florida Supreme Court upheld an action for invasion of privacy asserted by one Zelma Cason, who was colorfully described in, and projected from obscurity into prominence by, the book entitled "Cross Creek" written by the defendant, Marjorie Kinnon Rawlings (Baskin). Cason claimed that her new found notoriety, imposed against her will, had disturbed and humiliated her. The Court held that the "right of privacy," in substance, is the right to be let alone, the right to live in a community without being held up to the public gaze against one's will, and damages will lie for breach of that right. It was further held that malice need not be shown by the plaintiff, and that neither truth nor the absence of malice or wrongful motive on the part of the defendant constituted any defense.
After the 1944 Cason opinion reinstating the plaintiff's privacy claim, which had been dismissed at a preliminary stage by the trial court, the case was remanded and went to trial before a jury in Alachua County, Florida. The defendant prevailed, and the case was again appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. This time, in Cason v. Baskin, 159 Fla. 31, 30 So.2d 635 (Fla.1947), the court reversed the defense judgment on the basis that the trial court erroneously had allowed the defense to focus on the prominence and literary abilities of Rawlings rather than on the true issue: Was there a general and legitimate public interest in Cason? The Court concluded that this was prejudicial to a fair trial and tended to confuse the jury.
The court also found, however, that Ca-son had failed to prove any malice or any actual damages — no mental anguish, no loss of friends or respect in the community, no injury to character or reputation. Therefore, the court held that, while Cason had suffered a wrongful invasion of her right of privacy, she was not entitled to actual or punitive damages, only nominal damages and costs.
Unlike the Cason scenario, the public interest in the Armstrong family cannot be said to have been generated by Channel 2. The Armstrongs were thrust into the public limelight by the tragic abduction and murder of Regina Mae, and there was a legitimate general or public interest in the Central Florida area in the events related to this crime. Regina's death, the discovery of her remains, and the police investigation of the case were facts known to the public prior to the disputed broadcast by Channel 2. The fact that the Oviedo police were in possession of the skull was not protected from public disclosure by any privacy rights of the Armstrongs. The factual disclosure by Channel 2 does not fit into any of the four general categories comprising the tort of invasion of privacy as recognized by Prosser in his Law of Torts, p. 804-14 (4th ed. 1971):
(1) Intrusion, i.e., invading plaintiffs' physical solitude, or seclusion; (2) Public Disclosure of Private Facts; (3) False Light in the Public Eye, i.e., a privacy theory analogous to the law of defamation; and (4) Appropriation, i.e., commercial exploitation of the property value of one's name.
The appellants have urged several out-of-state cases as being supportive of their claim based on invasion of privacy. The most factually analogous of these is Bazemore v. Savannah Hospital, 171 Ga. 257, 155 S.E. 194 (Ga.1930). In that case the Georgia Supreme Court upheld a complaint by the parents of a deceased child against a hospital, a photographer, and a newspaper for the unauthorized publication of a picture of their malformed child, which had been born with an external heart. It was alleged that the unauthorized taking and publication of the photograph had violated the parents' privacy rights, causing them humiliation and disgrace. As pointed out by the court in Bazemore, the suit was not based on injury to the deceased child {i.e., upon the theory of a relational right of privacy). Said the court: "The right, if it ever existed or now exists, began after the death of the child, and is a right of action on the part of plaintiffs."
We agree with the appellants that the issue herein posed in regard to the privacy claim is not concerned with the relational right to privacy, a theory successfully argued below by Channel 2 and again contended on appeal. But even if we agree with the conclusion of the Georgia Supreme Court in Bazemore, the facts of that case are distinguishable from those alleged in the Armstrong complaint in a significant respect. The birth of a malformed child to the Bazemores (which was considered humiliating in 1930) was a matter of private, not public, concern. On the other hand, the discovery of the remains of Regina Mae Armstrong, and their possession by the police, were legitimate matters of public interest. Bazemore, therefore, does not support the privacy claims of the Arm-strongs in the instant case.
Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's dismissal of the Armstrongs' action based on the tort of outrage in Count II of their first amended complaint, and affirm the dismissal of their action based on the tort of invasion of privacy in Count I.
AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS CONSISTENT WITH THIS OPINION.
GOSHORN, J., concurs.
W. SHARP, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with opinion.
. See Loft v. Fuller, 408 So.2d 619 (Fla. 4th DCA 1981), review denied, 419 So.2d 1198 (Fla.1982).