Opinion ID: 782173
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Purposeful Avoidance

Text: Suzuki also argues that there was sufficient evidence for a jury to have concluded under Masson II that, in the face of obvious reasons to doubt the accuracy of its Samurai story, CU did not act reasonably in dispelling those doubts, thereby raising the inference that CU knew of the story's falsity. Under this approach, [i]t is not ... the failure to act reasonably in itself that establishes malice; that failure is only a link in the chain of inferences that could (but need not) lead a jury to conclude that the publisher failed to conduct an investigation because it was already pretty much aware of the falsity. Masson II, 960 F.2d at 900. The central inquiry is whether the evidence discloses that a defendant purposefully avoided the truth. Id. First, Suzuki claims that CU had reason to doubt its assertion that the Samurai's rollover propensity warranted a Not Acceptable rating. In particular, Suzuki points to the NHTSA decision issued in September 1988 indicating that the Ford Bronco II had a three times greater rollover record than the Samurai, which had a rollover record corresponding to the Chevrolet S-10 Blazer. Additionally, CU learned in 1989 that the Samurai's rollover rate was less than the rollover rate of the Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota 4 Runner, Jeep CJ-7, and Ford Bronco II. Further, in 1992, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety produced a report showing that the Samurai had a rollover rate lower than that of many other SUVs. Second, Suzuki contends that CU had sufficient reasons to doubt the validity of the testing procedures it used to determine the negative Samurai rating. Here Suzuki again relies on the NHTSA study criticizing CU's testing procedures for failing to provide a basis for repeatable results and being overly dependent on driver influence. Suzuki also emphasizes the British Department of Transport study echoing these conclusions, as well as statements by Knoll and Sheehan suggesting that at least some CU personnel acknowledged that its testing procedures were overly driver-influenced. Suzuki asserts that, despite these indications that the Samurai rating rested on questionable data and suspect methodological premises, CU took no steps to engage in further investigation, thereby reinforcing the inference of purposeful avoidance. Suzuki faults CU for failing to incorporate instruments into its testing that would record how the driver was steering the vehicle and for never evaluating its test results against real-world crash data. It suggests that CU's failure to do so violated accepted journalistic standards 14 and raises the inference that CU ignored contrary evidence that would confirm the falsity of its claims about the Samurai. The district court rejected much of this evidence, stating particularly that the NHTSA study was not entitled to greater weight than any other study or opinion regarding testing methods and therefore could not support a claim of actual malice. In response to the NHTSA report, CU published an article in the November 1988 issue of Consumer Reports that addressed the NHTSA's critique of CU's negative Samurai rating. With respect to the issue of the Samurai's rollover rate, CU stated: According to NHTSA's own Crash Avoidance Research Data file, however, the Suzuki Samurai's rate of rollover in single-vehicle accidents is more than double the average for all sport-utility vehicles. In 1986, the most recent year for which there are figures, the Suzuki rolled over in 64 percent of all single-vehicle Suzuki accidents reported in this data base. The only vehicle that came close to the Samurai in rollover involvement is the now-discontinued Jeep CJ-5 (49 percent). By contrast, the rollover rate for full-sized sedans was only 8 percent. NHTSA appears to have relied not on its statistics on rollover rates for single-vehicle accidents but on a different data base, one that includes only rollovers involving a fatality. Elsewhere, ... [the NHTSA] notes that the Samurai was involved in six fatal rollovers per 100,000 vehicles on the road, a record the agency compares favorably with that of the Ford Bronco II —19 fatal rollovers per 100,000 vehicles on the road. CU has learned that the overall rollover rate for the Bronco II is high — about the same as that for the Jeep CJ-5 —but not nearly as high as the Suzuki's. The higher number of fatalities in Bronco II rollovers could come about for a number of reasons. The Suzuki rolled over at a relatively low speed in our accident-avoidance tests; if Bronco II rollovers occurred at higher speeds, one would expect more fatalities per rollover. One would also expect more fatalities if the Bronco II were driven more miles, on average, than the Suzuki. Regarding the NHTSA's criticisms of CU's testing protocols, the article went on to state: NHTSA did no independent testing of the Suzuki's rollover propensity. Rather, it uncritically accepted Suzuki's data, saying Suzuki demonstrated that the Samurai satisfactorily completed industry accepted ... tests which might be used to assess a vehicle's rollover propensity. But there are no industry-accepted tests for rollover propensity—a point NHTSA itself makes elsewhere in its letter.... [One] test performed for Suzuki looks superficially like an avoidance maneuver, since the car was run through a slalom course. But in a realistic avoidance maneuver, a car is steered first to the left and then back to the right immediately. In the Suzuki test, the car was steered to the left, then straightened and allowed to recover before returning to the right lane. That is a simple lane-changing maneuver, not an accident-avoidance maneuver. NHTSA also adopted as its own another of Suzuki's arguments: Using the accident-avoidance maneuver developed by CU, the agency stated, probably any light utility vehicle could be made to roll over. But NHTSA offered no evidence or independent test results to support such speculation. In fact, no vehicle other than the Suzuki has rolled over in the 10 years we've tested for accident avoidance. The critical inquiry under Masson II is whether CU failed to act reasonably in investigating and responding to contrary studies in a manner that suggested it was attempting purposefully to avoid discovering the truth of the matter. In general, the analysis conducted and published by CU in response to the NHTSA study is not indicative of purposeful avoidance. To the contrary, in the November 1988 article, CU challenged the NHTSA report head on, stating its disagreement in detail and supporting its alternative conclusions with substantive justifications. To the extent that there were contrary rollover statistics, CU analyzed them and explained why they did not warrant a conclusion at odds with its initial assessment of the Samurai. In response to the NHTSA's critique of CU's testing, CU argued that the Suzuki tests upon which the NHTSA relied were flawed. While Suzuki may disagree with CU's discussion of the rollover statistics or its criticisms of Suzuki's own accident avoidance tests, such disagreement does not demonstrate CU's purposeful avoidance of critical facts. While we agree with CU, however, that much of Suzuki's purposeful-avoidance argument boils down to its disapproval of CU's conclusions, there is one issue that nevertheless precludes summary judgment here. In particular, CU has done nothing to respond to the criticism of its testing procedures as overly influenced by driver input. This evidence formed the basis for the district court's decision in Isuzu Motors, in which the court relied heavily on the NHTSA report to deny CU's summary judgment motion, stating that CU was aware that its tests were significantly reliant upon driver input and skill. Isuzu Motors, 66 F.Supp.2d at 1125. Suzuki has pointed to further evidence that some CU personnel shared this assessment. The issue is whether CU, armed with the knowledge that its tests were potentially flawed in this way, failed reasonably to investigate in such a manner that could lead a jury to conclude by clear and convincing evidence that CU was aware of the falsity of its Samurai report. Drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of Suzuki on this point, CU's failure to address this deficiency with its testing procedure could lead a jury to conclude that it was aware that doing so would disclose the falsity of its negative Samurai rating. Therefore, we conclude that Suzuki has also raised a genuine issue of material fact as to whether CU purposefully avoided information that would have undermined its assessment of the Samurai's rollover propensity.