Opinion ID: 2388471
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Publication to Secretaries

Text: Hanrahan next claims that the court erred in instructing the jury that: ... as a matter of law ... the fact that the letter was typed by Vivian Mercer, a secretary in the office of Tatar and Kelly, and may have been read by Dorothy Daniels, another secretary in said office prior to the mailing thereof does not constitute a publication of said letter and does not sustain liability on the part of the defendant, Mr. Kelly, so far as those two secretaries are concerned. Hanrahan argues with much force that such instruction is contrary to our holding in Gambrill v. Schooley, 93 Md. 48, 48 A. 730 (1901) and not within the exception to the Gambrill rule subsequently recognized in Domchick v. Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc., 200 Md. 36, 87 A.2d 831 (1952), and Peurifoy v. Congressional Motors, Inc., supra . In Gambrill we held that the transcription and typing of a libelous letter by the defendant's private secretary constituted a publication (publication being defined, we there found, as `the communication of the defamatory words to some third person'), and that such publication was actionable  i.e., sufficient to support a finding of libel even if the writing was, as in that case, then delivered to the plaintiff without being made known to any other person. In so holding we rejected the arguments there advanced: (1) that the secretary was performing a mechanical process without perception of the communication; and (2) that in view of the confidential nature of the secretary's employment, and the almost universal use of such services, a sufficiently strong policy reason existed for creating an exception to the rule of publication. In rejecting the policy plea, we said, 93 Md. at 61, 48 A. at 731: Neither the prevalence of any business customs or methods, nor the pressure of business which compels resort to stenographic assistance, can make that legal which is illegal, nor make that innocent which would otherwise be actionable.  (Emphasis added.) Gambrill, a case of first impression in the United States, reviewed the English cases on point, two of which are here pertinent. Pullman v. Walter Hill & Co., [1891] 1 Q.B. 529, held actionable the publication of a libelous letter to the clerk who transcribed and typed it, and to the office boy who copied it in a letter-press book. In Boxsius v. Goblet Freres, [1894] 1 Q.B. 843, the English court recognized an exception to the rule of Pullman v. Walter Hill & Co., supra . Gambrill summarized and distinguished Boxsius, 93 Md. at 62-63, 48 A. at 732: There, the libellous letter was dictated by a solicitor, acting in behalf of and at the direction of his client, and copies were made as in the case mentioned. The Court distinguished the case very clearly from Pullman v. Hill, holding, through two of the same judges, that the solicitor owed to his client the duty to act on his instructions, and that if the solicitor had communicated directly with the plaintiff, the communication would have been privileged, and that he could discharge that duty, as he did other business of the office, in the ordinary way without losing the privilege. But there was no question of privilege in Pullman v. Hill, and there is none here, as the appellant owed no duty in the matter to any one. (Emphasis added.) Thus, in Gambrill, we declined to view Boxsius as a weakening of the general rule declared in Pullman, but classed it instead as a clearly distinguishable exception rooted in the well-established rules of privilege. The general rule in England, established in Pullman, became the general rule in Maryland, declared in Gambrill. Fifty years later, the Boxsius -type exception was presented to us in concrete form in Domchick v. Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc., supra . In Domchick, the appellant (an employee discharged for theft) alleged libel based on writings by the general manager  a memorandum to the Board of Directors pertaining to appellant's discharge and a letter to him stating the reasons therefor  both of which were typed by the general manager's secretary. We recognized that each of these writings arose out of a duty which the general manager owed to the corporation and its board of directors, 200 Md. at 42, 87 A.2d at 834; and further, that the letter was the result of a duty which the general manager owed to appellant, the latter having requested notice in writing of the grounds for his discharge, ... [this] request being in accordance with the Personnel Policies of the Corporation. 200 Md. at 39, 87 A.2d at 833. Because of the duty the general manager owed in connection with the writings, we held the communications conditionally privileged. Just as the English courts had recognized that the existence of a privilege in Boxsius created an exception to the Pullman rule, we recognized that the conditional privilege in Domchick created an exception to the Gambrill rule. We said: ... [Appellant] further contends that the dictation of the memorandum and letters to the stenographer took the case out of the privileged class. In support of this contention, he cites the case of Gambrill v. Schooley, 93 Md. 48, 48 A. 730, 52 L.R.A. 87, which held that the dictation of a letter to a stenographer was publication, that there was no privilege between the stenographer and her employer, and that such a dictation in that case took the communication out of the privileged class. In that case, however, the defendant dictated a libellous letter to his stenographer and had it mailed to the plaintiff, and the sole question was whether, under such circumstances, the dictation to the stenographer was a publication of the letter, as, of course, the defendant could not have been liable for a letter written to the plaintiff had not someone else seen it. This court held in that case, that, as the stenographer had no interest in the matter, it was a publication. There was no question of privilege in that case at all, and we would be loath to hold that privileged communications respecting the affairs of a corporation or a business must be written by hand and not dictated, as is the universal custom.... [The general manager] was using the ordinary facilities of his office, in doing something which came within the duties of his office, and to hold that dictating letters and memoranda about such matters to his stenographer was a publication of them to a person who had no interest in them, and, therefore, they were without the ordinary privilege they would otherwise have had, leads to a conclusion which can only be termed ridiculous.  200 Md. at 43-44, 87 A.2d at 835. (Emphasis added.) Peurifoy v. Congressional Motors, Inc., supra , involved a communication factually similar to the letter in Domchick. The secretary to the vice-president of Congressional Motors, at the latter's direction, typed the allegedly libelous letter detailing the reasons for Peurifoy's discharge, and the letter was then hand-delivered to Peurifoy, without being communicated to any other person. When Peurifoy was decided seventeen years after Domchick, it had become well established in Maryland that communications arising out of the employer-employee relationship enjoy a qualified privilege, whether it be classified as a privilege arising from duty (legal or moral), common interest in the subject matter of the communication, or as a sui generis privilege. See Stevenson v. Baltimore Baseball Club, Inc., supra, 250 Md. at 486, 243 A.2d at 536. Therefore, Peurifoy's discharge letter from his employer, typed by the employer's secretary, was immune from liability absent a showing of express malice. The occasion of the communication was privileged, and the essence of our holding in Peurifoy reiterated the Boxsius rule we recognized, as dicta, in Gambrill, namely that the ... [defendant] owed ... the duty, and ... if the ... [defendant] had communicated directly with the plaintiff, the communication would have been privileged, and ... he could discharge that duty, as he did other business of the office, in the ordinary way without losing the privilege. Gambrill v. Schooley, supra, 93 Md. at 62-63, 48 A. at 732. We recognize that some confusion, reflected in the instruction in the instant case, may have been engendered by the flat statement in Peurifoy that there was no publication ... by the dictation of the letter ... to ... [the] stenographer and by her transcription of the letter. 254 Md. at 514, 255 A.2d at 339. (Emphasis added.) We think that a fair reading of Peurifoy, particularly its heavy reliance on Domchick, which distinguished Gambrill, makes it readily evident that we concluded that there had been no actionable publication in the circumstances of that case. Our holding in Peurifoy does not represent a departure from the general rule of Gambrill; rather, it follows the Domchick exception to Gambrill, i.e., that while such communication is a publication, it is not an actionable publication where an unabused qualified privilege exists. [3] Relating the governing law to the instructions before us, (that communication to the two secretaries does not constitute a publication of said letter and does not sustain liability on the part of the defendant, Mr. Kelly, so far as those two secretaries are concerned) we do not find reversible error. While the statement that the communication was not as a matter of law a publication is technically in conflict with the law of Maryland as we reaffirm it today, we think such error, in light of the overall correctness of the instruction that such communication does not sustain liability on the part of the defendant (or, as we have expressed it elsewhere in this opinion, is not actionable), is harmless. Baltimore Transit Co. v. State ex rel. Castranda, 194 Md. 421, 71 A.2d 442 (1950), Sieland v. Gallo, 194 Md. 282, 71 A.2d 45 (1950); cf. State Roads Commission v. Kuenne, 240 Md. 232, 213 A.2d 567 (1965); Rippon v. Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co., 213 Md. 215, 131 A.2d 695 (1957). To support the substantial correctness of the instruction, we need only look to the court's finding, as a matter of law, of the existence of a qualified privilege as to Moser and Goldman. Where a conditional privilege is so found to exist, Any reasonable and appropriate method of publication may be adopted which fits the purpose of protecting the particular interest. The dictation of a business letter to a stenographer ... [citing Domchick among others] may be privileged on a proper occasion.... In all such cases, the fact that the communication is incidentally read or overheard by a person to whom there is no privilege to publish it will not result in liability, if the method adopted is a reasonable and appropriate one under the circumstances. Prosser, supra, at 820. There was no evidence that the procedure used for sending the letter was not reasonable; on the contrary, all the evidence was that the typing by Mercer, under the supervision of Daniels, was in accordance with the normal procedure of that office for mailing copies of correspondence. The fact of the publication to the other five persons, and of possible malice, would not deprive Kelly of the immunity, as to the single act of publication to the secretaries, furnished by the qualified privilege as to Goldman and Moser.