Opinion ID: 406813
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Heading: qualified privilege under michigan law

Text: 36 ABC contends that a qualified privilege protects it even if the Broadcast was capable of a defamatory meaning. Michigan's qualified privilege protects a defendant from liability even where the statements published were defamatory. A defendant loses the protection of the qualified privilege, however, if it acts with actual malice as defined in New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964). Schultz v. Newsweek, 668 F.2d at 918; Lawrence v. Fox, 357 Mich. 134, 97 N.W.2d 719 (1950) In New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court held that a defendant acts with actual malice where a statement is made with knowledge that it is false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. Id. 376 U.S. at 280, 84 S.Ct. at 726. The record in the instant case does not indicate that ABC acted with actual malice. Therefore, if Michigan's qualified privilege applies in this case, we could sustain the district court's grant of summary judgment for ABC. 37 Plaintiff argues that Michigan's qualified privilege does not apply in this case, therefore, she is required to prove only that ABC was negligent. 4 38 The parties' contentions raise difficult issues of state and constitutional law. State defamation law is affected by First Amendment principles. See Schultz v. Newsweek, 668 F.2d at 916; Orr v. Argus Press Co., 586 F.2d 1108 (6th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 960, 99 S.Ct. 1502, 59 L.Ed.2d 773 (1979). Moreover, as a legal and practical matter, the state law issues and the constitutional issues may be intertwined in some situations. See Orr, 586 F.2d at 1112. We will address the issues arising under Michigan law first, and will reach the constitutional issues only if required to do so. Cf. Schultz v. Newsweek, 668 F.2d at 916. 39 The Michigan Supreme Court recognized a qualified privilege to publish defamatory statements in the seminal decision of Bacon v. Michigan Central R. Co., 66 Mich. 166, 33 N.W. 181 (1887). In Bacon, the court held that the qualified privilege: 40 extends to all communications made bona fide upon any subject matter in which the party communicating has an interest, or in reference to which he has a duty, to a person having a corresponding interest or duty. And the privilege embraces cases where the duty is not a legal one, but where it is a moral or social character of imperfect obligation. 41 Id. at 170, 33 N.W. 181. 42 Whether the qualified privilege applies is a question of law. Fortney v. Stephan, 237 Mich. 603, 213 N.W. 172 (1927). The court must decide as a matter of law whether there is a recognized public or private interest which would justify the utterance of publication. Schultz v. Newsweek, 668 F.2d at 918. 43 One privileged occasion involves publications or broadcasts which are in the public interest. The privilege rests upon considerations of public policy. Lawrence v. Fox, 357 Mich. at 137, 97 N.W.2d 719. The privilege varies with the situation (and) with what is regarded as the importance of the social issues at stake. Id. at 138, 97 N.W.2d 719. The privilege applies as a matter of law where the plaintiffs' activities or opinions are in the public interest. Schultz v. Newsweek, 668 F.2d at 918; Orr v. Argus Press, 586 F.2d at 1108; Fortney v. Stephan, 237 Mich. 603, 213 N.W. 172; Bostetter v. Kirsch Co., 319 Mich. 547, 30 N.W.2d 276 (1948). 44 Once a court determines that the occasion is privileged, the court must next determine whether the allegedly defamatory statement is within the scope of the qualified privilege. Bowerman v. Detroit Free Press, 287 Mich. 443, 447, 283 N.W. 642 (1939). The defendant in Bowerman published a newspaper article concerning a judicial proceeding. The article was inaccurate, and contained libelous language. Nevertheless, the defendant argued that there was a qualified privilege to report on judicial proceedings. The court first held that the extrinsic circumstances in the instant case are that defendant's newspaper was reporting a judicial proceeding which created a qualified privilege. Id. at 447, 283 N.W. 642. The Bowerman court also held that the newspaper article was not within the scope of the qualified privilege. The court reasoned that the privilege did not justify inaccuracies in the published report. 45 In Timmis v. Bennett, 352 Mich. 355, 89 N.W.2d 748 (1958), the Michigan Supreme Court adopted the following statement from 33 Am.Jur., Libel and Slander, § 126: 46 The essential elements of a conditionally privileged communication may accordingly be enumerated as good faith, an interest to be upheld, a statement limited in scope to this purpose, a proper occasion, and publication in a proper manner and to proper parties only. 47 Id. at 369, 89 N.W.2d 748 (Emphasis added.) 48 The plaintiff in Timmis, a police officer, claimed that statements made concerning the performance of her official duties were defamatory. The court held that the statements were within the scope of the qualified privilege because of the public's interest in law enforcement matters and the actions of members of the police department. 49 Judge Lively's opinion in Schultz v. Newsweek, 668 F.2d 911, is also instructive. In Schultz, this Court held that the scope of Michigan's qualified privilege is not a question of fact. In a Newsweek article concerning the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the plaintiff was referred to as a Detroit underworld figure. Four articles which appeared in the Detroit News also discussed the plaintiff. Three of these articles concerned the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. Schultz was referred to as a longtime underworld figure and one of the last two men that Jimmy Hoffa was to have met before his disappearance. The fourth article discussed the problems encountered by Schultz's sons in their attempt to obtain a liquor license. This article stated that Schultz was a key figure in the investigation of Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance. 50 Schultz brought a libel action in which he conceded that Hoffa's disappearance was a matter of public interest. Nevertheless, Schultz argued that because he was an incidental figure in these articles the scope of Michigan's qualified privilege was a jury question. The defendant publishers argued that the entire report contained in each article was privileged and that there was no issue of scope since Schultz was not a peripheral or incidental figure. The court rejected Schultz's argument that the scope of the privilege is a matter of fact. The court relied upon Bowerman v. Detroit Free Press, 287 Mich. 443, 283 N.W. 642, and held that the scope of the privilege is a question of law. We agree with the court's holding that the scope of the privilege is to be decided by the court as a question of law. 51 The qualified privilege does not extend, however, to plaintiffs who are not the focus of the alleged public interest publication. A plaintiff who is merely an incidental figure in the broadcast is not, as a matter of law, within the scope of the privilege. See Timmis, 352 Mich. at 369, 89 N.W.2d 748. The policy underlying Michigan's qualified privilege is to promote reporting and comment about matters which are in the public interest. Lawrence v. Fox, 357 Mich. 134, 97 N.W.2d 719. If an individual is involved in some activity or proffers an opinion which is in the public interest, then a news story concerning that individual's activity or opinions is also in the public interest. 52 The same considerations do not apply where the plaintiff has only the most tenuous connection with the public interest subject matter. A newspaper or television broadcast concerning this incidental plaintiff is not in the public interest. The societal interests which the privilege protects are not furthered by expanding the scope of the privilege to include such individuals. Consequently, the scope of Michigan's qualified privilege does not encompass publications or broadcasts where the plaintiff is not the focus of the public interest publication. 53 In this case, Act III focused on the devastating effects of street prostitution on a middle-class neighborhood. The activities or opinions of the street prostitutes would clearly be in the public interest. Moreover, the reactions of residents to the street prostitutes is also in the public interest. 54 Plaintiff's participation in the Broadcast, however, was not in the public interest. There was a nexus between the plaintiff in Schultz v. Newsweek, 668 F.2d 911, and the subject matter of the articles: the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. By contrast, Plaintiff's appearance in the Broadcast had absolutely no connection with the subject matter of the Broadcast, i.e., street prostitution and its effect on a Detroit neighborhood. It is undeniable that Plaintiff was at best an incidental figure in the discussion of street prostitution. 5 Plaintiff was not a prostitute when this segment of the Broadcast was filmed, nor was she one when the Broadcast was aired. In fact, as noted earlier, it is uncontroverted that Plaintiff has never engaged in prostitution or any sex-related business. Moreover, Plaintiff was not a resident of the Detroit neighborhood discussed during Act III. Instead, she resided in Ferndale, Michigan, when she was filmed and when the broadcast was aired. Although she was not a resident of this neighborhood, her reaction to the street prostitutes may have been in the public interest. However, she was not filmed during a protest march against the presence of street prostitutes, nor was she being harassed by the street prostitutes or the cruising customers. Also, she was not interviewed concerning her reactions to street prostitution. Therefore, her picture as she walked down a public street has absolutely no connection with the subject matter of the Broadcast. 55 We therefore conclude that Plaintiff's participation in the Broadcast was neither in the public interest nor within the scope of Michigan's qualified privilege as a matter of law.