Case Name: Roy B. SCHAEFER, Jr. v. Bill LYNCH and the Times Picayune Publishing Corp
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1986-02-28
Citations: 483 So. 2d 607
Docket Number: No. 81-C-1409
Parties: Roy B. SCHAEFER, Jr. v. Bill LYNCH and the Times Picayune Publishing Corp.
Judges: 
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 483
Pages: 607–607

Head Matter:
Roy B. SCHAEFER, Jr. v. Bill LYNCH and the Times Picayune Publishing Corp.
No. 81-C-1409.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Feb. 28, 1986.
For Opinion see: La., 406 So.2d 185.

Opinion:
DENNIS, Justice,
concurring.
The plaintiff admitted the lack of falsity in Lynch's article. The defendants' motion for summary judgment should have been granted based on that admission. The other evidence, including the Ross affidavit indicating malice on Lynch's part, is irrelevant. Truth is a threshold inquiry beyond which the trial court and this court should not have gone in a case involving a public official and public affairs.
If upon a lawful occasion for making a publication, he has published the truth, and no more, there is no sound principle which can make him liable, even if he was actuated by express malice. If there is a lawful occasion — a legal right to make a publication — and the matter true, the end is justifiable, and that, in such case, must be sufficient.
Garrison v. State of Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 73, 85 S.Ct. 209, 215, 13 L.Ed.2d 125 (1964).