Opinion ID: 607123
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: hefty mark-ups

Text: 15 While many American businesses are donating products to GIs stationed in Saudi Arabia for the holidays, a widely promoted charity is charging hefty mark-ups on goods it ships to them. 16 Plaintiffs complain that the words hefty mark-ups imply that they were making a large profit and were pocketing it. Hefty is the author's opinion of the mark-up based on his estimate that the wholesale cost of the items in the Gift Pac was under $8. Though opinion per se is not immune from a suit for libel, a statement is not actionable unless it asserts a provably false fact or factual connotation. Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1, 19, 110 S.Ct. 2695, 2706, 111 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990); Potomac Valve & Fitting, Inc. v. Crawford Fitting Co., 829 F.2d 1280, 1288 (4th Cir.1987) (presaging Milkovich by placing primary emphasis of erstwhile fact-versus-opinion inquiry on verifiability of the statement). Hefty is just too subjective a word to be proved false. The use of the term mark-up instead of profit or the like makes the pocket-lining inference plaintiffs would draw implausible. 7 In addition, the rest of the article, in some detail, recounts Greve's efforts to estimate the wholesale cost of the items in the Gift Pac. Because the bases for the hefty mark-up conclusion are fully disclosed, no reasonable reader would consider the term anything but the opinion of the author drawn from the circumstances related. Potomac Valve, 829 F.2d at 1289-1290 (even statement capable of being proved false would be understood as author's opinion where it was a conclusory punch line following fully-disclosed facts); accord, Phantom Touring, Inc. v. Affiliated Publications, 953 F.2d 724, 729-730 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 2942, 119 L.Ed.2d 567 (1992). 17 Finally, though there is no such thing as a [true] idea, 8 Greve's opinion was certainly defensible. Indeed, when he wrote the article, Greve did not know that the mark-up was even more hefty than his estimate. The costs associated with each Gift-Pac, as disclosed in discovery by the plaintiffs, were: 18 Thus, the mark-up from the wholesale cost of the items and package was over 100%--hefty to most minds, we would think. The heavy advertising and solicitation expenses--$7.93 per Pac--are a feature of Chapin-run charities, as we will have cause to mention below. 19