Opinion ID: 2516806
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Interests Protected

Text: Privacy torts protect one's right to be let alone. Thomas M. Cooley, A Treatise on the Law of Torts, 29 (2d ed. 1888). In false light terms, Prosser describes such right as a person's interest in being let alone in instances where there has been publicity of a kind that is highly offensive. Prosser and Keeton, Torts, § 117, at 864 (5th ed.1984). Highly offensive is the element of false light that distinguishes it from defamation. A defamation claim requires a showing that the publication damaged the plaintiff's reputation in the community. False light requires no such showing. Rather, false light requires a showing that the publication is highly offensive, but need not have damaged that plaintiff's reputation in the community. The theory is that a publication could be highly offensive to an individual without meeting the standard of lowering that person's reputation in the community, a standard required by defamation law. Bolduc v. Bailey, 586 F.Supp. 896, 900 (D.Colo.1984) (The gravamen of an action for defamation is the damage to one's reputation in the community caused by the defamatory statement(s).). If the statement did lower the person's reputation, it would clearly be actionable as defamation. If it did not, then, and only then, would there be a need for a false light tort that was not coextensive with defamation. In sum, defamation protects individuals from (public) offense, but only false light will serve where the offense does not lower that individual's reputation in the community. [13] The question then is what is the nature of the interest that the tort protects? Scholars writing on false light variously describe the protected interest as peace of mind, injury to the inner person, freedom from scorn and ridicule, freedom from embarrassment, humiliation and harassment, freedom from personal outrage, freedom from injury to feelings, freedom from mental anguish, freedom from contempt and disgrace, and the right to be let alone. Ray, supra, at 726 (citation omitted) (adding the protection of one's right to self-determination to the list). Lying at the core of all these interests are the personal feelings of the false light plaintiff. The issue is not whether others are given cause to change their perception of the plaintiff, but how the plaintiff himself responds to the publication. Courts that recognize false light view one's reputation in the community and one's personal sense of offense as separate interests. See Crump v. Beckley Newspapers, Inc., 173 W.Va. 699, 320 S.E.2d 70, 83 (1984) (`Secondly, in defamation cases the interest sought to be protected is the objective one of reputation, . . . . In privacy cases the interest affected is the subjective one of injury to [the] inner person.') (quoting Thomas I. Emerson, The Right of Privacy and Freedom of the Press, 14 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L.Rev. 329, 333 (1979)). But even those states that accept as important the difference between these two interests, reputation and personal feelings, recognize an affinity between them: There are differing interests protected by the law of defamation and the law of privacy, which account for the substantive gradations between these torts. The interest protected by the duty not to place another in a false light is that of the individual's peace of mind, i.e., his or her interest in not being made to appear before the public in an objectionable false light or false position, or in other words, otherwise than as he is. The action for defamation, on the other hand, is to protect a person's interest in a good reputation . . . . Nevertheless, despite analytical distinctions, there is a conceptual affinity between the causes of action based on these two theories. Romaine v. Kallinger, 109 N.J. 282, 537 A.2d 284, 290 (1988) (citations omitted). We believe that recognition of the different interests protected rests primarily on parsing a too subtle distinction between an individual's personal sensibilities and his or her reputation in the community. In fact, the United States Supreme Court trampled any such subtleties in Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., 433 U.S. 562, 97 S.Ct. 2849, 53 L.Ed.2d 965 (1977). `The interest protected' in permitting recovery for placing the plaintiff in a false light `is clearly that of reputation, with the same overtones of mental distress as in defamation.' Id. at 573, 97 S.Ct. 2849 (quoting Prosser, supra, at 400.). We agree. False statements that a plaintiff finds highly offensive will generally either portray that plaintiff negatively or attack his conduct or character. At the same time, publicized statements that are disparaging and false satisfy the elements of defamation. See Schwartz, supra, at 887. Thus, the same publications that defame are likely to offend, and publications that offend are likely to defame. For example, if the article here did indeed portray Eddie Bueno as a criminal, then that statement is defamatory and not merely offensive. Those cases in which offense is taken, although no damage is done to plaintiff's reputation, are few and far between. Because the likelihood of a chilling effect is much greater than the likelihood that an offended plaintiff will be left with no cause of action, we feel that defamation law will adequately and most appropriately protect the public. Delving into case law where a plaintiff brought false light and defamation claims further exposes the similarity between the two torts. Remarkably few instances exist where the false light claim proceeded, but defamation failed. Those that did were on atypical facts or dubious legal grounds. See, e.g., Howard v. Antilla, 160 F.Supp.2d 169, 171, 174-75 (D.N.H.2001) (permitting as not inconsistent a jury verdict for defendant on defamation claim but for plaintiff on false light claim where defendant's article identified plaintiff as the chairman of two publicly traded companies and entertained a rumor that plaintiff was actually a convicted felon who had violated securities laws); Moore v. Sun Publ'g Corp., 118 N.M. 375, 881 P.2d 735 (Ct.App.1994) (ruling defamation claim failed as opinion, but false light could proceed to jury on remand where defendant's mailings portrayed plaintiff as culpable for a poor business decision). These anomalies aside, however, there do exist scenarios where false light arguably fits, but defamation fails. See Schwartz, supra, at 893-96. Schwartz's categories are essentially two. The first involves cases where the defendant reveals intimate and personal, but false, details of plaintiff's private life, for example, portraying plaintiff as the victim of sexual harassment, Crump, 320 S.E.2d at 80, or as being poverty-stricken, Cantrell v. Forest City Publ'g Co., 419 U.S. 245, 95 S.Ct. 465, 42 L.Ed.2d 419 (1974), or as having a terminal illness or suffering from depression. [14] These depictions are not necessarily defamatory, but are potentially highly offensive. The second category encompasses portrayals of the plaintiff in a more positive light than he deserves. See, e.g., Spahn v. Julian Messner, Inc., 43 Misc.2d 219, 250 N.Y.S.2d 529, 538-40, 543 (N.Y.Sup. Ct.1964), aff'd, 260 N.Y.S.2d 451, 23 A.D.2d 216 (1965), aff'd, 18 N.Y.2d 324, 274 N.Y.S.2d 877, 221 N.E.2d 543 (1966), vacated, 387 U.S. 239, 87 S.Ct. 1706, 18 L.Ed.2d 744 (1967) (trial court finding invasion of privacy where plaintiff was depicted in book as a war hero who earned Bronze Star and raced out into the teeth of the enemy barrage  two of a multitude of characterizations that were utterly false and embarrassing to plaintiff). We acknowledge the potential for precluding such claims, but we are convinced that those scenarios represent a decidedly narrow band of cases. If the published statement insults and disparages the plaintiff, he will quite naturally suffer shame and humiliation because those that read the falsity will view him differently, and defamation will properly lie. Colorado's defamation law compensates plaintiffs for personal humiliation, mental anguish and suffering. CJI-Civ. 4th 22:13. If, however, the published intimate details are true, then disclosure is the proper cause of action. Should the publication take plaintiff's likeness and use it for pecuniary gain, the tort of appropriation provides relief. And there remains the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress/outrageous conduct for offensive publications in which the defendant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct, recklessly or with the intent of causing the plaintiff severe emotional distress, provided the plaintiff actually incurs severe emotional distress as a result of the defendant's conduct. McKelvy v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 983 P.2d 42, 44 (Colo.App. 1998). The great majority of the scenarios proffered above would support a cause of action under one of these alternative theories. We therefore believe that the highly offended plaintiff is adequately protected by existing remedies.