Opinion ID: 385754
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: was the malice question appropriate for resolution on summary judgment ?

Text: 52 The district court, having decided that plaintiff was a public figure, applied the correct standard of liability but held there was no genuine issue of material fact on the question of actual malice, as defined by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 279-80, 84 S.Ct. at 725-26. Because we conclude that the facts in this case, taken in a light most favorable to Rebozo, raised such an issue of fact, we reverse the summary judgment entered for defendant. 53 In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court held the First Amendment precludes recovery by a public official for defamation unless the plaintiff can prove the statement was made with actual malice. A person has acted with actual malice when a statement is made with knowledge that it was false, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 279-80, 84 S.Ct. at 725-26, or with a high degree of awareness of the statement's probable falsity, Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 74, 85 S.Ct. 209, 215, 13 L.Ed.2d 125 (1964), or with reckless disregard of whether the statement was false or not, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 279-80, 84 S.Ct. at 725-26. See Miller v. Transamerican Press, Inc., 621 F.2d 721, 724 (5th Cir. 1980); Long v. Arcell, 618 F.2d 1145, 1147 (5th Cir. 1980). The Supreme Court has further defined the phrase reckless disregard: 54 There must be sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendant in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of his publication. Publishing with such doubts shows reckless disregard for truth or falsity and demonstrates actual malice. 55 St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 731, 88 S.Ct. 1323, 1325, 20 L.Ed.2d 262 (1968) (emphasis added). See Eaton, The American Law of Defamation Through Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. and Beyond: An Analytical Primer, 61 Va.L.Rev. 1349, 1370-75 (1975). Recklessness cannot be inferred, however, from the mere combination of falsehood and the defendant's general hostility toward the plaintiff, nor may reckless disregard be inferred from negligence. Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association, Inc. v. Bresler, 398 U.S. 6, 10, 90 S.Ct. 1537, 1539, 26 L.Ed.2d 6 (1970); St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. at 731, 88 S.Ct. at 1325. 56 The parties argue at some length as to whether summary judgment is a peculiarly appropriate vehicle for the disposition of libel suits governed by the actual malice standard of New York Times. Appellee's brief at 30. In all candor, there is a certain amount of confusion in our cases on this question. Some of our cases have recognized that the plaintiff's standard of proof on the actual malice issue is higher than other issues and have thus concluded that actual malice is an issue which lends itself to summary judgment. E. g., Southard v. Forbes, Inc., 588 F.2d 140, 146 (5th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 832, 100 S.Ct. 62, 62 L.Ed.2d 41 (1980). Other cases have suggested that the need under the First Amendment to protect publishers from the chilling effect of a long and expensive trial justifies a presumption in favor of summary judgment. See Bon Air Hotel, Inc. v. Time, Inc., 426 F.2d 858, 864-65 (5th Cir. 1970); Time, Inc. v. McLaney, 406 F.2d 565, 566 (5th Cir. 1969). Other cases, however, have recognized that actual malice refers to the mental state of the defendant with respect to the truthfulness of the allegedly defamatory material and that (p)roof of such a mental state must usually be inferred from circumstances difficult to develop on motion for summary judgment. Vandenburg v. Newsweek, Inc., 441 F.2d 378, 380 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 864, 92 S.Ct. 49, 30 L.Ed.2d 108 (1971). See also Time, Inc. v. Ragano, 427 F.2d 219 (5th Cir. 1970). Even those cases strongly urging summary judgment describe it as proper only where the record is devoid of genuine issues of fact on the actual malice question. Bon Air Hotel, Inc. v. Time, Inc., 426 F.2d at 865. 57 In view of this uncertainty, it is appropriate to examine closely the recent Supreme Court authority related to this inquiry. The subjective nature of the evidence a plaintiff must rely on was emphasized by the Supreme Court in Herbert v. Lando, 441 U.S. 153, 99 S.Ct. 1635, 60 L.Ed.2d 115 (1979), where it was held that any direct or indirect evidence relevant to the state of mind of the defendant, id. at 165, 99 S.Ct. at 1643, could be used to support plaintiff's burden of showing actual malice with convincing clarity. The implications of this holding with respect to summary judgment disposition were noted in a case decided that same term, Hutchison v. Proxmire, 443 U.S. 111, 120 n.9, 99 S.Ct. 2675, 2680 n.9, 61 L.Ed.2d 411 (1979): 58 Considering the nuances of the issues raised here, we are constrained to express some doubt about the so-called rule. The proof of actual malice calls a defendant's state of mind into question, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686) (1964), and does not readily lend itself to summary disposition. See 10 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2730, pp. 590-592 (1973). Cf. Herbert v. Lando, 441 U.S. 153, 99 S.Ct. 1635, 60 L.Ed.2d 115 (1979). 59 Herbert v. Lando also casts serious doubt on the notion that the chilling effect of a long and expensive trial justifies a presumption in favor of summary judgment, at least to the extent that such a presumption exceeds the balance struck between the rights of publishers and defamation plaintiffs in New York Times v. Sullivan. The Court reiterated that the First Amendment does not provide a publisher complete immunity and that if inhibition flows from the fear of damages liability for publishing knowing or reckless falsehood, those effects are precisely what New York Times and other cases have held to be consistent with the First Amendment. 441 U.S. at 171, 99 S.Ct. 1646, 60 L.Ed.2d 115. While the Court recognized the burden and expense of pretrial discovery in First Amendment defamation cases, that was not enough, it held, to modify the standard set in New York Times v. Sullivan. 441 U.S. at 175-77, 99 S.Ct. 1648-49, 60 L.Ed.2d 115. 60 Laying aside the suggestion that the potential chilling effect of the burdens of litigation are in and of themselves grounds for preferring summary judgment, an idea repudiated by Herbert v. Lando, the cases in this Circuit can be reconciled. These cases stand for the principle that the standard of review in First Amendment defamation actions, as in all summary judgment cases, is whether the record, construed in a light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment has been entered, demonstrates there are genuine issues of fact which, if proven, would support a jury verdict for that party. Since, however, a jury verdict in a defamation case can only be supported when the actual malice is shown by clear and convincing evidence, rather than by a preponderance of evidence as in most other cases, Brewer v. Memphis Publishing Co., 626 F.2d 1238, 1258 (5th Cir. 1980), the evidence and all the inferences which can reasonably be drawn from it must meet that higher standard. 61 On this record we conclude the district court was confronted with a genuine issue of material fact on the details of investigator Riley's conversation with Rebozo, and reporter Kessler's review of it. In investigating the story, even though Kessler went to the trouble of calling Riley, he failed to review with Riley the words in Riley's earlier deposition upon which Kessler eventually based the article's lead. Regardless of whether Riley knew at the time of his conversation with Rebozo whether the pledged stock had in fact been stolen, the seminal question may be what Riley actually told Rebozo before the stock was sold to cover the loan. We note in passing that on the second appeal in the conversion case, the Court found that not until December 1968, nearly two months after the stock sale, did E. F. Hutton learn that the stock involved in this case was among those shares that had been missing from its vault. Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Key Biscayne Bank, 501 F.2d 1322, 1324 (5th Cir. 1974). Despite Kessler's professed belief in the veracity of Riley's deposition testimony, Kessler's resolution of the obvious ambiguity whether Riley told Rebozo the stock was (a) missing, (b) stolen, or (c) missing or stolen, in favor of the most potentially damaging alternative creates a jury question on whether the publication was indeed made without serious doubt as to its truthfulness. St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. at 732, 88 S.Ct. at 1326. 62 There is, moreover, a material question of fact suggested by Kessler's October 6, 1973 memorandum to his editor, in which the reporter expressed uncertainty about whether the Key Biscayne Bank or Rebozo himself cashed the stock. Kessler stated in that memorandum that if the bank, rather than Rebozo, had actually cashed the stock, the article's proposed lead paragraph would have to be modified. This memorandum, plus the fact that Kessler resolved the uncertainty expressed in it in such a way as to cast plaintiff Rebozo in the worst possible light and to make for Kessler a front-page story of an episode which otherwise might not have commanded any significant attention, when taken in a light most favorable to Rebozo, could amount to evidence of the reporter's reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the assertion that Charles G. (Bebe) Rebozo, President Nixon's close friend, cashed $91,500 in stolen stock .... See St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. at 731-32, 88 S.Ct. at 1325-26; New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 279-80, 84 S.Ct. at 725-26. Thus we cannot say the record is devoid of genuine issues of fact as to whether the alleged defamatory statement was published with actual knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false. Bon Air Hotel, Inc. v. Time, Inc., 426 F.2d at 865. Accordingly, the district court's summary judgment on the question of actual malice is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings. 63 REVERSED AND REMANDED.