Case Name: WILLIAM L. MAHNKE v. NORTHWEST PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Minnesota
Decision Date: 1968-05-31
Citations: 280 Minn. 328
Docket Number: No. 40,745
Parties: WILLIAM L. MAHNKE v. NORTHWEST PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Judges: 
Reporter: Minnesota Reports
Volume: 280
Pages: 328–371

Head Matter:
WILLIAM L. MAHNKE v. NORTHWEST PUBLICATIONS, INC.
160 N. W. (2d) 1.
May 31, 1968
No. 40,745.
Oppenheimer, Hodgson, Brown, Wolff & Leach and David C. Don-nelly, for appellant.
Erickson, Popham, Haik & Schnobrich, Wayne G. Popham, and Rolfe A. Worden, for respondent.

Opinion:
Nelson, Justice.
In this action for libel, defendant, Northwest Publications, Inc., appeals from an order denying its motion for judgment n. o. v. or a new trial. Plaintiff, William L. Mahnke, was awarded a verdict of $3,000 general damages plus $1,000 punitive damages.
Defendant is' the owner and publisher of two daily St. Paul newspapers, the St. Paul Dispatch and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Plaintiff was and is a detective captain with the Minneapolis Police Department. The libel for which plaintiff recovered was contained in the following article, which appeared in the "Sunset Final" edition of the St. Paul Dispatch January 21, 1960:
"Cop Rebuke in Tot Molesting Urged
"A Minneapolis Catholic priest today demanded an official reprimand for one of that city's detective captains because he said the police official had refused to arrest a man involved in a serious child-molesting case.
"Involved in the complaint, which he said he would 'carry to the governor if necessary,' are Father Thomas F. Meagher, executive director of the Catholic Welfare association, and William L. Mahnke, one of four Minneapolis police department detective captains.
"Father Meagher said the case was brought to his attention by a parish priest to whom a woman complained that her husband was sexually molesting their 6-year-old daughter. A doctor examined the girl and verified the molesting.
" 'It was the worst case of incest ever to come to my attention,' Father Meagher said.
"Father Meagher who also serves as Catholic chaplain for Hennepin district and Minneapolis municipal courts, sent the mother and child to police. Statements were taken from them by the department's sex squad. Detective William Quady then sought permission from Captain Mahnke to arrest the father.
"Rev. Meagher said Mahnke 'flew into a rage' when he learned the woman had discussed the case with her parish priest before coming to police and accused her of 'trying to get even with her husband.'
" 'Mahnke told her there was no case and refused to send out detectives to make the arrest,' Father Meagher said today. T don't believe police officials should be allowed to set themselves up as judges and juries in the face of such evidence.'
"When the woman returned and told Father Meagher what had happened, he complained to another detective captain, Calvin Hawkinson, who had the father arrested. The father later gave a statement admitting that he had sexually molested the child and is being held in the city jail pending filing of charges, Father Meagher said.
"The Catholic official carried his complaint of the woman's treatment to Chief of Police Milton E. Winslow, Mayor Peterson and the city's civil service commission.
" 'I don't care what Mahnke's punishment is,' he said today, 'but he is going to get an official reprimand if I have to carry the matter to the governor.'
"He refused to be calmed by Chief Winslow's comment that the affair was only a 'misunderstanding or error of judgment' and refused to participate in a meeting the chief was seeking to arrange between Mahnke, the woman and Father Meagher.
" 'I'll be happy to have the woman tell her story to the chief,' the priest said, 'but I won't be involved in a roundtable discussion with Mahnke. This is a serious matter and should be handled as such.'
"Mahnke could not be reached for comment." (Italics supplied.)
Plaintiff claimed that the italicized portions of the above article were false.
If all conflicts in the evidence are resolved in favor of plaintiff as the prevailing party below, the facts appear to be as follows: On January 15, 1960, Byron Blake, his sister, Mrs. June Spahr, and her 6-year-old daughter went to the Minneapolis Police Department. The daughter had told her mother that her father had been molesting her. The Reverend Thomas F. Meagher, who was executive director of the Catholic Welfare Association and who served also as Catholic chaplain for Hennepin County District Court and the Minneapolis municipal court, sent the mother and child to the police. Upon their arrival, Detective William T. Quady and a policewoman interviewed the mother and daughter, and the policewoman took statements from them. A physician had examined the daughter and had given a written report which apparently failed to support the claim of molesting.
Detective Quady had authority to have the father arrested. He had doubts at the time whether the available evidence would support a valid arrest, so he consulted with plaintiff at approximately 6:15 p. m. of that day, relating to plaintiff the information available. They then called an assistant county attorney, Ronald Meshbesher, to ask if he would authorize an arrest. Meshbesher said he would not do so under the circumstances and suggested that detectives be sent to the home to interview the father in order to develop either an admission or some further evidence which would support an arrest.
After this talk with Meshbesher, plaintiff and Detective Quady talked to Mrs. Spahr and her brother, Byron Blake. Both of them wanted the husband arrested. In accordance with the suggestion made by the assistant county attorney, plaintiff told Detective Quady that he should go out to the Spahr residence and question the father. At that point the brother asked if the police could absolutely guarantee that they would arrest Spahr if they went out to the house. Blake believed that Spahr had been drinking and could be abusive to the family and he did not want Spahr contacted if he were not then arrested. Plaintiff explained to both Blake and Mrs. Spahr that such a guarantee could not be made. Mrs. Spahr and her brother then requested that detectives not be sent to the house to interview the father. When Mrs. Spahr indicated that her husband's driver's license had been suspended, a plan was devised to arrest him the next day when he would be driving his automobile, and Detective Quady prepared a directive to this effect. The plan was that after making an arrest for the driving offense the police would question Spahr with respect to the charge of molesting his daughter.
After these plans were made, plaintiff ascertained that Mrs. Spahr and her daughter could safely return to their home. The meeting between the parties, which had lasted about IY2 hours, then came to an end.
The record is clear that during the course of the. meeting plaintiff did not refuse to arrest Spahr; Detective Quady did not seek permission from plaintiff to arrest Spahr; plaintiff did not fly into a rage or express any anger; he did not accuse the mother of trying to get even with her husband; he did not tell her there was no case; he did not refuse to send out detectives to make an arrest; and he did not express an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the father, although in fact his personal opinion was that the man was guilty. Evidence was also presented showing that plaintiff was available to the writer of the newspaper article for comment.
The article was published January 21, 1960, some 6 days after the event reported.
The record indicates that plaintiff was not on duty January 16, the day following the meeting. However, at approximately 2:30 p. m. that day Detective Captain Calvin F. Hawkinson, then on duty, telephoned plaintiff and said that he had received a call from Father Meagher asking about the status of the Spahr matter. Plaintiff indicated surprise because of the plan that had been made the previous evening and asked if the man had not been arrested. Plaintiff then outlined to Captain Hawkinson the problems with the case as they had appeared the previous evening and said that Captain Hawkinson would have to use his judgment in the further handling of the matter.
It appears that Father Meagher informed Captain Hawkinson that he had talked to the doctor who had examined the child and that the doctor told him that the child's female organs were red and irritated— medical information that apparently did not appear on the report which the police had received the previous night. Captain Hawkinson also wanted some legal advice as to whether an arrest could be made. After obtaining the opinions of two assistant county attorneys, Bruce Stone and Chester Durda, that sufficient probable cause existed to arrest the father, he ordered Spahr's arrest. Arrested during the afternoon, Spahr subsequently admitted the offense with which he was then charged.
Max (Mickey) Schwartz, a reporter working at the rewrite desk for the St. Paul Dispatch January 21, 1960, wrote the article. As a rewrite man, Schwartz' job consisted of taking dictation from reporters who were out of the office and preparing stories that the city editor wanted "written in a hurry." His first knowledge of the incidents that had occurred 6 days before was obtained on the morning of January 21 in a call either to or from Minneapolis in which he was told there was a disagreement between Father Meagher and plaintiff. He did not assign the story to a reporter working outside the office, but instead handled it directly from the rewrite desk. He first attempted to reach Father Meagher and was successful only after what he described as "numerous phone calls." He reached Father Meagher at noon on January 21.
Schwartz did not recall whether he questioned Father Meagher carefully as to the events that occurred at the meeting about which the story was written. He said, however, that Father Meagher was, at the time of their conversation, irate. He did not recall whether he asked Father Meagher if he was present or personally witnessed the remarks and actions which his story attributed to plaintiff. He testified that he "assumed" Father Meagher was present.
The statement in the article that "the woman returned and told Father Meagher what happened" warranted the jury's implicit findings that Schwartz knew when he wrote the article that Father Meagher was not present at the meeting in question, and that Schwartz also knew that the information related to him in a secondhand fashion originally came from an upset person, the complaining mother. Schwartz did not call the mother nor did he ask if Father Meagher had talked to Detective Quady or to the brother of the .complaining woman. He made no attempt to reach either Detective Quady or the brother. He did, however, call Inspector Charles Weatherall who referred him to Chief of Police Milton Wins-low. Winslow said that there had been a misunderstanding. Schwartz admitted that he disregarded that warning as not warranting further investigation of the facts and prepared the article as a routine story.
Schwartz testified that he tried unsuccessfully to reach plaintiff both at the police department and at home. In the article Schwartz stated that "Mahnke could not be reached for comment." Under the state of the record the jury could have found that this statement was false. Plaintiff testified that he was off duty, was at home during the entire period of time that Schwartz was preparing the article, and received no calls from Schwartz. Lucille Mahnke, plaintiff's wife, was also at home during this period of time. She testified he did not receive any calls that day. Schwartz claimed that he asked for plaintiff at police headquarters but that he did not attempt to do so until after he had talked to Inspector Weatherall, Chief Winslow, and Father Meagher. He said he did not leave a message for plaintiff because he was in too much of a rush and because any call he would have received from plaintiff would have been "too late to do me any good that day." It is apparent that the jury accepted plaintiff's testimony that he could have been reached for comment.
Schwartz first intended to print the article in the home edition, whether or not he reached plaintiff. When he had not succeeded in doing so by 12:30 p. m., the deadline for that edition, the city editor, who was Schwartz' immediate superior, had him hold the story for publication in the later edition so that he could reach plaintiff. Then at the suggestion of the city editor, Schwartz went to lunch, returning at 1 p. m. Upon his return from lunch Schwartz claimed he made a further attempt to reach plaintiff and then wrote the story in a "few minutes."
Plaintiff learned of the story, which is the subject of this action, on the evening that it appeared. He received a call from someone at the Dispatch, asking if he had read the story. The story was read over the telephone to him, and he was asked to comment. Plaintiff said the story was completely untrue and that he would have no further comment until he read the article.
Subsequently, plaintiff demanded a retraction of the article. When a retraction was not forthcoming, he instituted ffiis action. It first came before this court upon an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment of dismissal following the trial court's determination that his demand for a retraction did not comply with the requirements of Minn. St. 548.06. We held that the demand did sufficiently comply with the statute and remanded the case for trial. Mahnke v. Northwest Publications, Inc. 266 Minn. 515, 124 N. W. (2d) 411.
Defendant contends that reversal of the $4,000 verdict against it is required because the article is within the fair-comment rule which under certain circumstances permits a defendant to escape payment of damages resulting from the publication of untrue statements about public officials or figures. This court has recently had occasion to consider the relevant authorities in Rose v. Koch, 278 Minn. 235, 154 N. W. (2d) 409.
Defendant assigns as error the lower court's denial of its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial, citing the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710, 11 L. ed. (2d) 686, 95 A. L. R. (2d) 1412. Since defendant indicates that Minnesota now has a "new" law of defamation, it should perhaps be noted that in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, supra, the United States Supreme Court adopted the position taken long before that case by this court and a minority of other courts on the fair-comment privilege. Under this view, the privilege to publish defamatory statements about public officials without responding in damages extends to false statements made in good faith about a public official as well as to matters of comment only. One commentator analyzed the Supreme Court's action as follows:
" xhe rule adopted by the Supreme Court in Sullivan is basically the same as the view espoused by a minority of the state courts . In brief, the majority view has been eliminated by the position taken by the Supreme Court." Pierce, The Anatomy of an Historic Decision: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 43 N. C. L. Rev. 315, 342. See, also, Note, 18 Vanderbilt L. Rev. 1429, 1437; Note, 19 U. of Fla. L. Rev. 700.
Comment, 114 U. of Pa. L. Rev. 241, 242, lists Minnesota as one of the 10 states which had adopted the "Sullivan privilege," extending the fair-comment rule to false statements of fact, prior to that decision. The United States Supreme Court in the New York Times case also recognized Minnesota as a forerunner of its thinking on this point. The court in setting the standard to be applied henceforth by all states said (376 U. S. 279, 84 S. Ct. 726, 11 L. ed. [2d] 706, 95 A. L. R. [2d] 1435):
"The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with 'actual malice' — that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. An oft-cited statement of a like rule, which has been adopted by a number of state courts, is found in the Kansas case of Coleman v. MacLennan, 78 Kan. 711, 98 P. 281."
Cited by the Supreme Court as an example of a "like rule" was the Minnesota case of Friedell v. Blakely Printing Co. 163 Minn. 226, 230, 203 N. W. 974, 975.
It has been said that New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is a most significant decision for the reasons that "not only did the Supreme Court enunciate, for the first time, a rule to govern 'the extent to which the consti tutional protections for speech and press limit a state's power to award damages in a libel action brought by a public official against critics of his official conduct,' but in making this decision the Court brought considerable uniformity to the law of libel and nullified an action which had encroached upon free speech and press 'under the guise of punishing for libel.' " Pierce, supra, p. 362.
Under the Supreme Court rule enunciated in the New York Times case, a person is culpable of actual malice if he makes a false statement against a public official "with reckless disregard" of whether it is false or not. It may be said that precisely what constitutes reckless disregard is an open question, since it must depend upon the facts and circumstances of each particular case. Undoubtedly, further litigation concerning the application of this standard may well be expected in the future. See, Pierce, supra, p. 343.
In its application of the law of defamation of public officials, the Minnesota Supreme Court has heretofore upheld a jury award based upon reckless libel. In MacInnis v. National Herald Printing Co. 140 Minn. 171, 167 N. W. 550, L. R. A. 1918D, 1091, plaintiff, an incumbent seeking reelection, sued for defamation when an article was published by the defendant charging that he was not a citizen. The article was published over the name of the rival candidate, who authorized its publication but did not compose the article. This court upheld an award including punitive damages against the defendant newspaper, stating (140 Minn. 175, 167 N. W. 551):
" The court properly submitted the question of punitive damages. The jury could well enough conclude that the publication was attended with such recklessness as betokened an utter disregard of the plaintiff's rights and was actually malicious and called for punishment."
There was in the Maclnnis case no charge of actual malice in the sense of ill will toward the plaintiff. Liability was sustained because of a reckless failure to find out the true facts before publication, the jury finding that recklessness existed to such an extreme degree as to support an award of punitive damages.
The United States Supreme Court has recently upheld an award based on reckless defamation and in so doing has offered some relevant observations. In Curtis Pub. Co. v. Butts, 388 U. S. 130, 135, 87 S. Ct. 1975, 1981, 18 L. ed. (2d) 1094, 1099, the Supreme Court examined the current state of libel law as applied to public figures. At the outset of his opinion, Mr. Justice Harlan noted the need for—
" some further exploration and clarification of the relationship between libel law and the freedom of speech and press, lest the New York Times rule become a talisman which gives the press constitutionally adequate protection only in a limited field, or, what would be equally unfortunate, one which goes far to immunize the press from having to make just reparation for the infliction of needless injury upon honor and reputation through false publication."
See, Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U. S. 374, 87 S. Ct. 534, 17 L. ed. (2d) 456.
In the words of Mr. Justice Black, concurring in the New York Times case, "malice" is "an elusive, abstract concept, hard to prove and hard to disprove." New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 293, 84 S. Ct. 733, 11 L. ed. (2d) 716, 95 A. L. R. (2d) 1444. Despite these conceptual difficulties, it is necessary to attempt to define the limits of "actual malice" as used in the New York Times case in order to determine if the facts in the case before us are sufficient to sustain the verdict. In New York Times, "actual malice" was defined to include a statement made "with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." 376 U. S. 280, 84 S. Ct. 726, 11 L. ed. (2d) 706, 95 A. L. R. (2d) 1435. Unless a public official can establish that state of facts, he cannot recover for privileged libel.
In the case at bar, there has been no evidence and no claim that defendant knew the statements appearing in the article were false. Therefore, if plaintiff is to recover, he must establish that they were published with reckless disregard of whether what was written in the article was false. Plaintiff contends that the evidence here, in contrast to that in the New York Times case, is constitutionally sufficient to support a finding of such reckless disregard on defendant's part. In our opinion the record bears out this contention.
In its answer in this action defendant alleged that all matters in its story were true. The testimony set forth in the record clearly indicates that when the case came to trial it developed that defendant had little, if any, evidence which would indicate that any of the contested parts of the story were true; but there is sufficient evidence to sustain the jury's finding that the statements claimed by plaintiff to be false were in fact false. Plaintiff specifically denied that they were true. On direct examination Mr. Blake, who was called as a witness by defendant, testified that plaintiff did not fly into a rage and did not tell Mrs. Spahr there was no case. When asked if it were true that plaintiff refused to send detectives out to her home to make an arrest, Blake simply stated that he did not send them out to make an arrest. Blake also said that he did not hear plaintiff accuse Mrs. Spahr of trying to get even with her husband. Asked whether or not Detective Quady sought permission from plaintiff to arrest Mr. Spahr, Blake said, "He did consult with Captain Mahnke as to whether or not he should make the arrest, yes." Blake had also previously explained that Detective Quady, who,m he characterized as most cooperative, was concerned about the legal problems in making the arrest and wished to speak to plaintiff concerning these problems. Detective Quady also testified that the challenged statements in the article were false. He confirmed plaintiff's testimony that the only reason an arrest was not made on January 15 was because they were uncertain as to whether there were sufficient grounds to make the arrest then and Mrs. Spahr and her brother were fearful that the husband might vent his rage on the family if he were released. Detective Quady said he did not seek plaintiff's permission to make an arrest, that plaintiff did not become angry, and that Quady did not hear plaintiff accuse Mrs. Spahr of trying to get even with her husband. Thus it is clear that the jury could find the article was in part false.
Defendant argues that the accuracy of the article, other than the portions italicized above, was not challenged, so plaintiff concedes the episode did occur and in the manner described in the article.
Plaintiff admitted that all italicized material except the last statement was attributed to Father Meagher, as can be plainly seen by any reader of the article. There is no claim that Father Meagher was misquoted, and a Minneapolis reporter testified that he confirmed his exact quotes to her some hours after the article was published. However, it is clear from the record that whatever statements Father Meagher made had no foundation in fact and that, if a follow-up had been made by getting in touch with Detective Quady or plaintiff to verify the facts, it would have been made clear that Father Meagher was not present at the meeting on the afternoon of January 15, 1960; had no true knowledge of what had transpired on that occasion; and apparently no concern about clearing up a simple misunderstanding on the part of Mrs. Spahr and her brother about the caution taken by the officers in making the arrest. As the record stands, either Father Meagher had been misinformed or he recklessly made the statements quoted in the article without regard to whether they were true or false. In any event, it appears that the article was based only upon statements by someone who was not present at the meeting and was in no position to have the true facts in his possession.
The article in question was of an unusual type involving serious libel implications, particularly because of the highly offensive nature of the charges which it contained. Since a period of 6 days had elapsed, it would seem that defendant could have taken the additional time necessary to learn what actually had happened. Instead, its reporter wrote an article stating that a person of Father Meagher's prominence had complained of plaintiff's treatment of Mrs. Spahr to the chief of police, the mayor of Minneapolis, and the Civil Service Commission, and had stated, "I don't care what Mahnke's punishment is, but he is going to get an official reprimand if I have to carry the matter to the governor."
The defamatory character of the article is plain. It contained the accusation that plaintiff refused to arrest an obvious child molester and, even worse, a man who had sexually molested his 6-year-old daughter. This was not all — the article went on to state that plaintiff "flew into a rage" when he learned that the complaining mother had discussed the case with her parish priest before coming to the police station. Not only was a picture painted of plaintiff as a policeman unconcerned with the apprehension of a man who had committed a serious and repulsive crim inal act, he was accused of harshly abusing a mother in time of great stress and with disrespect of her religion. The article further stated that plaintiff had accused the mother of trying to get even with her husband, had told her she had no case, and had refused to send a detective out to make an arrest. Certainly any person reading an account of such despicable conduct would react with resentment.
The article was placed on the front page of the newspaper, with a title sufficiently "catchy" so that it might cause persons merely glancing at the article to believe that plaintiff might have been involved in the molesting of a child. The location of the article demonstrates that it was given top importance, and Schwartz admitted that he knew the subject was serious. Defendant's executive editor admitted that readers of the story would be indignant and think that something should be done about it. Thus, it appears to us that the gravity of the charges in this story was a factor to be considered by the jury in assessing the conduct of defendant.
There were admissions on the part of defendant that it knew it was necessary to verify this kind of story before printing it. The city editor had refused to let the story go into the noon edition of the paper on January 21 because it lacked such verification from plaintiff. The reporter testified he was aware of the need to verify these statements:
"Q. Now, during the course of the conversation, did you conclude in your mind that this was a serious matter that was involved in this potential story?
"A. I thought so.
"Q. I assume then that because of that fact you were concerned about verifying the statements that would go into the story?
"A. True."
Yet the article was published without contacting anyone who was at the meeting at the police station and after verification only of the part of the story dealing with Father Meagher's reaction. Nothing had changed when the 2 o'clock deadline for the sunset edition arrived, but concern about verification apparently was forgotten. Plaintiff contends that the abandonment of such concern was a convincing admission of recklessness on the part of defendant.
He also points out that defendant had been put on notice of error in its story before it was published because Chief Winslow had warned Schwartz that there had been a misunderstanding as to what had actually occurred. The story itself reflects this fact, and that fact goes directly to the basic issue of the case. If one of the participants had been contacted, defendant would not have printed the article. Plaintiff contends that defendant's indifference to the police chief's warning alone would be sufficient proof of recklessness in publishing the article.
The evidence would warrant the jury in finding that little or no attempt was made to contact plaintiff before publication of the story and that plaintiff could have been reached at his home.
While Schwartz claimed that he knew Father Meagher and knew he had more experience in criminal matters because of his position as a chaplain than the average person does, plaintiff's knowledge of what occurred on the afternoon of January 15 was the key to the situation since Father Meagher did not attend the meeting and had no knowledge of what occurred except by hearsay coming from individuals who were troubled and upset, and who did not comprehend at the time the legal problems raised by their request that Spahr be arrested immediately. Had plaintiff or one of the other participants been contacted, it would appear that an accurate version of what happened would have eliminated the story for all practical purposes. Certainly the fact that a clergyman had been misinformed about the handling of a criminal complaint would not have been a sensational front-page story. The additional information and legal opinion which Captain Hawkinson had available to him the next day when the arrest was made would have altered the controversial nature of the story by placing plaintiff's official conduct in an altogether different light. A call to any of the detectives or police officials present at the hearing or concerned therewith could well have resulted in the story being shorn of any value as a news item at that late date. There is ample evidence upon which the jury could conclude that defendant was negligent in publishing the article, since Schwartz testified that he did not attempt to contact Detective Quady or Mrs. Spahr. There was also evidence that Schwartz was informed of the disagreement sometime during the morning of January 21, 1960, and that the article was written by 2 p. m. that afternoon. There was evidence that plaintiff was available at home for comment if Schwartz had been more diligent in attempting to contact him. All these factors could lead the jury to believe that defendant was overly hasty and negligent in publishing an article containing an array of false statements.
Under the standards applied by the United States Supreme Court in the New York Times case for the protection of the freedom of the press under the First Amendment, neither proof that a statement is false nor that it was negligently written is sufficient to establish actionable libel against defendant. In order for plaintiff to recover, it is essential, that he show "actual malice" on the part of defendant in the publication of the article by reckless disregard of whether the statements therein were false or not. We think the jury on the record presented here could find defendant's publication to have been made with such disregard. Several factors permit this conclusion. Under all the circumstances, the story was needlessly false. The statements relating to plaintiff could have been checked out by a reporter in a matter of hours and the false statements eliminated in a follow-up story in the next edition. The only purpose in publishing Father Meagher's version of a story 6 days old without verification from plaintiff or others present at the meeting — and in placing it on the front page — was to attract the interest of the reading public. The story was given the most controversial view possible, in the face of the warning that had been given by Chief Winslow that in fact the matter was based entirely upon a misunderstanding. The jury certainly could find that if defendant were concerned about the truth of this article it would, under the circumstances, have required additional supervision and checking before releasing the article for publication. Instead, routine treatment was given, the story being developed by a few telephone calls despite its unusual nature, and no reporter as assigned to check out the facts. Defendant's executive editor acknowledged that it would have been preferable to have a reporter talk to a person who was at the meeting. Schwartz admitted, however, that he would have published the story in the early edition without any verification but for the action of the city editor in holding it up. Under the circumstances the extent of the falsity contained in the article is also evidence of recklessness.
There is nothing in the evidence to indicate that Chief Winslow's explanation that there had been a misunderstanding was probed. Neither Captain Hawkinson, Detective Quady, nor plaintiff gave their version before the week-old occurrence was placed on the front page of the afternoon newspaper. The facts that the only news source contacted, Father Meagher, had not been present at the meeting, that he was then angry at plaintiff, and that the persons actually present at the meeting could have been and were not contacted, support the jury's finding of recklessness.
The trial court ruled that the failure to retract on the part of the defendant could not be considered by the jury. Plaintiff contends that the action of defendant on the demand for retraction is logically relevant to whether it was recklessly indifferent to the truth or falsity of the article and also that taking the failure to retract into account in determining reckless indifference to whether the story was true or false is the only way courts can encourage compliance by publishers with § 548.06.
Under the circumstances of this case, we think that the failure to retract the defamatory statements underscored defendant's reckless attitude as to the consequences of what had been published and that the jury was entitled to take that fact into consideration. See Pratt v. Pioneer-Press Co. 35 Minn. 251, 252, 28 N. W. 708, wherein Mr. Justice Mitchell, speaking for the court, said:
"If the question, generally, of the competency of this evidence was properly before us, no reason now occurs to us, if evidence of a retraction of a libel is competent in mitigation of damages, as showing a want of actual malice, why evidence of a refusal to retract, or of a peremptory and discourteous refusal to publish or even listen to a person's vindication of himself, is not competent as tending to show actual malice."
As we view it, the evidence considered by the United States Supreme Court in the Butts case has several parallels to the instant case. The court noted that the Butts story was in no sense "hot news." It appears that another person present when defendant's informant supposedly overheard the conversation of Butts upon which the defamatory story was based was not even interviewed. The Supreme Court felt that in the light of the seriousness of the charges against Butts, the Post had ignored "elementary" precautions. The charge that a police officer "flew into a rage" upon learning of the fact that a complaining mother went to a priest before she went to the police and then refused to arrest the man who had molested her 6-year-old daughter, is no less serious. Certainly "elementary" precautions were ignored in the instant case as in the Butts case.
In sustaining the jury award in the Butts case, Mr. Justice Harlan, speaking for the court, pointed out (388 U. S. 147, 87 S. Ct. 1987, 18 L. ed. [2d] 1106):
" 'Newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting companies are businesses conducted for profit and often make very large ones. Like other enterprises that inflict damage in the course of performing a service highly useful to the public they must pay the freight; and injured persons should not be relegated [to remedies which] make collection of their claims difficult or impossible unless strong policy considerations demand.' Buckley v. New York Post Corp. 373 F. 2d 175, 182."
Mr. Justice Harlan concluded by stating (388 U. S. 159, 87 S. Ct. 1994, 18 L. ed. [2d] 1114):
" Publishers like Curtis engage in a wide variety of activities which may lead to tort suits where punitive damages are a possibility. To exempt a publisher, because of the nature of his calling, from an imposition generally exacted from other members of the community, would be to extend a protection not required by the constitutional guarantee.
"Where a publisher's departure from standards of press responsibility is severe enough to strip from him the constitutional protection our decision acknowledges, we think it entirely proper for the State to act not only for the protection of the individual injured but to safeguard all those similarly situated against like abuse."
See Rosenblatt v. Baer, 383 U. S. 75, 92, 86 S. Ct. 669, 679, 15 L. ed. (2d) 597, 609, wherein the importance of reputation in our system of ordered liberties and the protection of the law gives that right were expressed by Mr. Justice Stewart in his concurring opinion:
" As the Court says, 'important social values underlie the law of defamation. Society has a pervasive and strong interest in preventing and redressing attacks upon reputation.'
"The right of a man to the protection of his own reputation from unjustified invasion and wrongful hurt reflects no more than our basic concept of the essential dignity and worth of every human being — a concept at the root of any decent system of ordered liberty. The protection of private personality, like the protection of life itself, is left primarily to the individual States under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. But this does not mean that the right is entitled to any less recognition by this Court as a basic of our constitutional system."
An analysis of the current law of libel as applied to public officials may be found in Goldwater v. Ginzburg (S. D. N. Y.) 261 F. Supp. 784, in which the court denied defendant's motion for summary judgment on the grounds that evidence adduced upon the pretrial depositions was such that the jury might well infer "actual malice" within the meaning of the New York Times rule. For instance, the libelous charge of "nervous breakdown" on the part of the plaintiff in the Goldwater case came from one source only and the defendant did not know whether the source had personal knowledge of that fact. The source of the published libel in the case at bar was Father Meagher, who did not have personal knowledge of plaintiff's asserted misconduct.
In the Goldwater case Ginzburg testified, with respect to one of the published charges about Goldwater, that he did not consider whether it was true or false and all he cared about was printing what had been said. Clearly it can be said that the attitude of defendant's reporter was similar in the case at hand.
The untrue remarks published in the instant case about plaintiff were, in contrast to those allegedly made about Sullivan in the New York Times case, harmful as well as being totally and completely untrue. Defendant, prior to the publication of the article, relied on one irate person as a source of information, whereas defendant New York Times relied on many reliable people, obtained certification that the individuals had consented to the use of their names in the advertisement claimed to be libelous, and made the determination prior to publication that the advertisement did not contain attacks of a personal character. Moreover, there can be no question that the defamation in the instant case related to plaintiff.
Defendant argues that whatever doubt of its right to publish the article in question could have been left by the New York Times decision was foreclosed in defendant's favor by Washington Post Co. v. Keogh, 125 App. D. C. 32, 365 F. (2d) 965. As we see it, the Washington Post case is not applicable to the case at bar. That case involved a lawsuit against an individual newspaper stemming from the publication of a syndicated column written by a writer who for many years had written a daily column published in more than 600 newspapers with a daily circulation of 40 million. The case simply held that reckless disregard of the truth could not be premised on the failure of one of the 600 newspapers across the nation to send a reporter or investigator out to independently review the factual circumstances dealt with in each syndicated column that it published.
While defendant contends that the evidence did not establish reckless disregard on its part "with convincing clarity," the evidence previously discussed contained several factors pointing strongly to such disregard and thus supports the jury's finding.
The trial court made every effort in submitting the issues to comply with the rule applied in the New York Times and Butts cases. It instructed the jury:
" A printed publication is libelous if it tends to injure the reputation of another and adversely affect his good name and standing in his community or among his associates in his work. It is immaterial what meaning Defendant intended to convey by the printed language because the language must speak for itself in the light of all the circumstances. Under that statement or definition the article here in question is libelous. However, it does not necessarily follow therefrom that the Defendant must respond in damages for its publication and distribution.
"The Plaintiff was at the time of the printed article and still is a Captain of Detectives in the Police Department of the City of Minneapolis, and1 as such, he was at that time a public officer, and you are to consider him so during your deliberations. His conduct in the discharge of his official duties is a matter of public interest. Freedom of the press and of speech and discussion upon a subject in which the public has an interest, such as the conduct of a public officer in the discharge of his official duties, has a right guaranteed by the constitution of our country. The constitutional principle is based upon the principle of open debate and discussion on all public matters, and does not turn on the truth of the published statement or of the kind appearing in this case. The Defendant's newspaper has a constitutional right to publish the article in question here, and to quote therein statements attributed to Father Meagher. Even if you find the article contains false or unverified statements as to truth or falsity, and even if you find the article is libelous as to the Plaintiff, nevertheless, the Plaintiff may not recover damages from the Defendant unless he has proved by clear and convincing evidence that the publication of the article was actuated by actual malice that is with knowledge that it was false and was published with a reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. A reckless disregard means a conduct which is heedless and shows a wanton indifference to consequences. It is a conduct which is far more than negligent.
"Even if you feel that the Defendant newspaper in failing to corroborate Father Meagher's statements with the Plaintiff himself or was negligent in failing to corroborate those statements with other principals present at the meeting, these findings of negligence are insufficient in themselves to show negligence that is required for a finding on your part of actual malice.
"In order to recover in this action, the Plaintiff must prove by evidence that is clear and convincing that the Plaintiff has sustained certain injuries to his reputation by the reason of the publication of this article, and that the article was actuated by actual malice on the part of the Defendant, and that he was damaged thereby." (Italics supplied.)
Shortly after undertaking its deliberations, the jury returned for further instructions. The following discussion took place before the foreman of the jury and the trial court:
"Juror: We have a question, Your Honor. When you were reading your — the law to us, I believe that you made a statement that negligence on the part of the newspaper as far as not checking out the story further could not be used against them in the same sense that malice might be used. And I think that we have a question on that point, the difference between malice and negligence. Could you read that, back to us?
"The Court: Well, the instruction as I read it was this: If you feel that the defendant newspaper was negligent in failing to corroborate Father Meagher's statement with the Plaintiff himself or was negligent in failing to corroborate those statements with other principals present at the meeting, these findings of negligence are insufficient in themselves to show the recklessness that is required for the finding on your part of actual malice.
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"I want to say that a reckless disregard means a conduct which is heedless and shows wanton indifference to consequences. Do you all understand what I mean? It is a conduct which amounts to negligence, and negligence I think you all may understand means the doing of something which a reasonable person would not do or the failure [to do] that a reasonable person would do under similar circumstances. That is negligence. But in this case, recklessness or reckless disregard means something over and above negligent conduct. Do you understand that?
"Juror: I think that answers our question. Thank you."
The court in a memorandum accompanying the order denying defendant's post-trial motion pointed out that the New York Times case lays down no guidelines as to what constitutes a "reckless disregard" except that mere negligence is insufficient, and said that what amounts to reckless disregard is clearly a jury question, citing Nusbaum v. Newark Morning Ledger Co. 86 N. J. Super. 132, 155, 206 A. (2d) 185, 198; Hogan v. New York Times Co. (2 Cir.) 313 F. (2d) 354; and MacInnis v. National Herald Printing Co. 140 Minn. 171, 167 N. W. 550, L. R. A. 1918D, 1091. We agree that this was a jury question. Moreover, we find the instructions given to the jury placed squarely before it the law set forth in the New York Times and Butts cases. It is the established rule in this state that a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict accepts the view of the evidence most favorable to the verdict and admits every reasonable inference to be drawn from such evidence, as well as the credibility of the testimony for the adverse party, and if the application of this rule, in the light of the evidence as a whole, discloses a reasonable basis for the verdict, the motion must be denied. 10 Dunnell, Dig. (3 ed.) § 5082, and case cited under note 18. Here, since there was evidence which would support a finding that defendant was guilty of reckless disregard of whether the article was false or not, and the verdict was arrived at under instructions correctly stating the applicable law, the trial court could not have properly granted defendant's motion.
The record indicates that defendant in support of its alternative motion for a new trial asserted 13 assignments of error. It does not appear that on this appeal any authorities have been submitted as to their merit. Under the circumstances, we are not bound to go into extended discussion of those assignments. However, the record establishes that the case was fairly and impartially tried and was submitted to the jury without prejudice to defendant.
Affirmed.
§ 548.06 provides in part: "In an action for damages for the publication of a libel in a newspaper, the plaintiff shall recover no more than special damages, unless a retraction be demanded and refused as hereinafter provided. He shall serve upon the publisher at the principal place of publication, a notice, specifying the statements claimed to be libelous, and requesting that the same be withdrawn. If a retraction thereof be not published he may allege such notice, demand, and failure to retract in his complaint and recover both special and general damages, if his cause of action be maintained. If such retraction be so published, he may still recover general damages, unless the defendant shall show that the libelous publication was made in good faith and under a mistake as to the facts."
Father Meagher predeceased the time of trial.
We quote in part from an article by Vermont Royster, editor of the Wall Street Journal, The Free Press and a Fair Trial, 43 N. C. L. Rev. 364:
" pt |s no accident] that in neither the first nor the fourth amendment did the drafters trouble to define freedom of the press, the form of a jury trial or the nature of the impartiality which the jurors are to possess.
" As the Supreme Court observed nearly seventy years ago, 'The law is perfectly well settled that the first ten amendments to the Constitution, commonly known as the Bill of Rights, were not intended to lay down any novel principles of government, but simply to embody certain guaranties and immunities which we had inherited from our English ancestors .'
"In the deep reaches of the common law those principles were not bred of abstract moral predilictions which, as Justice Holmes has said, 'must not be allowed to influence our minds in settling legal distinctions,' but rooted in harsh experience. Generations of experience had shown convincingly that without both of these guarantees — trial by jury and freedom of the press— no man was safe once caught in the sovereign's toils. The principles, then, were not philosophical but eminently practical.
"Yet so short are men's memories that we are now in a time when these two fundamental guarantees have come to be viewed by many people, including many supposedly versed in the law, as not only unrelated but even antagonistic and mutually irreconcilable.
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"Blackstone, that teacher of yesteryear who today is more honored than read, stated the matter clearly, and it is apparent that what he states is not a one-sided doctrine but a two-pronged concept. He remarks in his Commentaries:
"The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of the free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure from criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequences of his own temerity.
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"But note especially that as Blackstone states the principle there is no freedom from accountability for what is written or said. If a man writes what injures another he has, in this view, committed a tort, as surely as if he had stabbed him with a pikestaff. If what a man writes is destructive to the ends of society, then society may afterwards bring him to task.
"Such was the concept of freedom of the press to those who drafted the first amendment; they felt no need to define their terms for their minds had been suckled on Blackstone. A man was as free to write as to walk down a public highway; but if in either case he trampled a neighbor or disturbed the peace he should answer for it.
"If today we have problems from 'freedom of the press' they derive not from holding to the first part of the doctrine but from softening the second part. We do still have libel laws but they are neither clear nor forceful; in the recent New York Times case the Supreme Court all but abolished them as they apply- to public officials. In most jurisdictions the concept of an answerable tort from the printed word has, for all practical purposes, been lost entirely."
In a per curiam opinion filed November 6, 1967, Beckley Newspapers Corp. v. Hanks, 389 U. S. 81, 88 S. Ct. 197, 19 L. ed. (2d) 248, the United States Supreme Court, after "an independent examination of the record as a whole" (389 U. S. 82, 88 S. Ct. 198, 19 L. ed. [2d] 250), reversed a judg ment for the plaintiff in a libel action by a public official against a newspaper upon the ground that the record failed to show that the defendant possessed the high degree of awareness of the probable falsity required by the rule enunciated in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710, 11 L. ed. (2d) 686, 95 A. L. R. (2d) 1412. We do not feel that the editorials in Beckley and the failure to make prepublication investigation there involved are comparable to the situation disclosed by the record in the case before us.