Title: NAACP v. Moody
Citation: 350 So. 2d 1365
Docket Number: 49611
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: October 26, 1977

350 So. 2d 1365 (1977) NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR the ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE v. Robert E. MOODY. No. 49611. Supreme Court of Mississippi. October 26, 1977. Rehearing Denied November 16, 1977. *1366 Jack H. Young, Jr., Young &amp; Young, Jackson, Charles E. Carter, New York City, for appellant. William W. Ferguson, Raymond, for appellee. Before INZER, P.J., and ROBERTSON and SUGG, JJ. ROBERTSON, Justice, for the court: Robert E. Moody, a 13-year-veteran of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, brought suit in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Hinds County, against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Dr. Emmett C. Burns, field director for Mississippi of the NAACP, J.L. Brown, President of the Utica, Mississippi, branch of the NAACP, and James Carl Stokes, for libel and slander. After a full trial, the jury returned a verdict against the NAACP alone for $50,000 actual damages and $200,000 punitive damages. On a motion for remittitur, the trial judge reduced the actual damages from $50,000 to $10,000, but refused to reduce the punitive damages of $200,000, being of the opinion that the amount of punitive or exemplary damages was peculiarly a question for the jury to decide. The NAACP filed a motion for a new trial, in which it contended, among other things, "that there was no proof of malice, and that punitive damages should not be allowed." In its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the appellant contended: The trial court overruled the motions for a new trial and for judgment n.o.v. Some of the errors assigned by the NAACP are that: *1367 There were only two eyewitnesses to the arrest: Robert E. Moody, the Highway Patrolman, and James Carl Stokes, the man arrested. Moody testified that on the night of December 14, 1974, while he was traveling west on highway 18 on regular patrol, that Stokes passed him going east, and that the patrol car's radar monitor locked in at 84 miles per hour as being Stokes' speed. Moody turned his patrol car around and gave chase. As Stokes turned off of highway 18 onto the Chapel Hill Road, Moody turned on his blue flashing lights and his siren and chased Stokes for about 8 miles before he could get him to stop. Moody testified that at times he was traveling between 100 and 120 miles per hour. Moody stopped so that his patrol car's lights would shine on Stokes' door. Moody told Stokes to get out of his car and when it appeared that Stokes was reaching down on the floorboard, Moody pulled his pistol. Stokes got out of his car with nothing in his hand, so Moody holstered his pistol. Moody continued: Moody stated that he then put his knee in Stokes' back and handcuffed Stokes' hands behind him. After the wrecker arrived to tow in Stokes' car, Moody brought him to jail. A short time later the jailer informed Moody that Stokes was complaining of his head. Moody examined his head, and, noticing a cut in the back of his head, carried him to the hospital where x-rays were made and the cut sewed up. Moody then carried him back to jail. Stokes testified that he had attended a baby shower for his wife, had overstayed his time, and that, being the leader of a band, he was hurrying to make his band engagement at a club on Chapel Hill Road. Stokes stated that his speedometer wasn't working, and that he was probably speeding. Stokes continued: The next day Moody filed three charges against Stokes in the Justice of the Peace Court of F.O. Patterson, one for reckless driving, another for resisting arrest, and the third for eluding a police officer. On December 20, 1974, Stokes, by general affidavit, filed this charge against Moody in the same Justice of the Peace Court: On December 20, 1974, Dr. Emmett Burns, Mississippi Field Director of the NAACP, held a news conference in the office of the NAACP at 1072 Lynch Street, Jackson, Mississippi. All three television stations, WLBT (Channel 3), WJTV (Channel 12), and WAPT (Channel 16), were represented at this news conference. Stokes, Reverend Brown and Dr. Burns spoke out against police brutality. No tape of this news conference was produced or offered into vidence, and it is impossible for this Court to determine from the record who said what at this news conference. The plaintiff introduced several witnesses who testified generally that they had heard and seen this news conference on television, but no specific language was mentioned nor attributed to any particular speaker. On December 20, 1974, Dr. Burns, Field Director of the NAACP, and Reverend Brown, President of the Utica Branch of NAACP, on NAACP stationery, wrote Commissioner Dillard of the Mississippi Highway Patrol: A news article in the December 21, 1974, edition of the Jackson Daily News was introduced into evidence. The article read: On January 10, 1975, Justice of the Peace Patterson found Stokes guilty of the charges of resisting arrest and reckless driving but dismissed the charge of eluding an officer. Later that day (January 10, 1975), on the motion of Stokes to withdraw and dismiss the charge, Judge Patterson entered an order sustaining the motion and dismissing the charge of police brutality against Moody. Thereafter, according to the declaration, the only action taken by any of the defendants was the mailing of a letter, dated January 28, 1975, and written on NAACP stationery, by Dr. Burns, field director of the NAACP, to Mr. Thomas H. Keith, Editor of the Hinds County Gazette, at Raymond, Mississippi. Dr. Burns wrote: This letter, in our opinion, was not libelous of Patrolman Moody. The NAACP, up until the withdrawal of the charges against Officer Moody on January 10, 1975, had a right to believe Stokes' version of what happened to him on the night of December 14, 1974, when he was arrested by Patrolman Moody. Moody's friends had a right to believe his version of the incident. The only publication after January 10, 1975, was the letter of January 28, 1975, written by Dr. Burns to Editor Keith, which we have determined was not libelous. In the absence of a tape of the television interview, there is no evidence of any slanderous statement made by the agents of NAACP against Moody. We are also unable to find in the Jackson Daily News article and the letter to Commissioner Dillard any libelous statement. The trial court was correct in granting this instruction (Defendants' Instruction 3): In view of the fact that Moody was a public figure and the burden of proof was on him to prove actual malice, the trial court was in error in granting a conflicting instruction (Plaintiff's Instruction 4), which read: P-4 is an abstract instruction and not applicable to this case. It was in direct conflict with and in contradiction of Defendants' Instruction 3 which was a proper instruction in this case. Plaintiff Moody did not meet the burden of proving "actual malice" correctly defined in Defendants' Instruction 3. See New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710, 11 L. Ed. 2d 686, 95 A.L.R.2d 1412 (1964). Inasmuch as Moody was a public figure and actual malice was not proved against the NAACP, the judgment must be reversed and this case dismissed. This case was considered by a conference of the judges en banc. REVERSED AND RENDERED. PATTERSON, C.J., INZER and SMITH, P. JJ., and SUGG, WALKER, BROOM and LEE, JJ., concur. BOWLING, J., took no part.