Opinion ID: 2518909
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Conditional Privilege for Family Relationships

Text: ¶ 34 The Parents also claim a conditional privilege. Like absolute privileges, qualified privileges take numerous forms. The Parents ask us to extend to them conditional protection for communications that contain information relating to intra-family relationships, a privilege Utah has not yet formally recognized. Cf. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 597 (1977) (detailing the intra-family relationship privilege). ¶ 35 In Brehany v. Nordstrom, Inc., 812 P.2d 49 (Utah 1991), we awarded our approval to a similar conditional privilege that concerned a business, as distinguished from a familial, relationship. It was a retail-clothing employer that made the defamatory statements in Brehany when explaining to its managers and buyers that it had terminated the plaintiffs for conduct violating the drug policy; we held that these statements were privileged. We grounded our recognition of the conditional privilege on the existence of an employer's legitimate interest in disseminating its intention to enforce its drug policy. ¶ 36 Because we find little justification to deny relationships in the familial setting the same legitimacy we granted in Brehany to those in the business world, we take this occasion to incorporate Restatement (Second) of Torts, section 597 into Utah's defamation jurisprudence. Section 597, entitled Family Relationships, states: (1) An occasion makes a publication conditionally privileged if the circumstances induce a correct or reasonable belief that (a) there is information that affects the well-being of a member of the immediate family of the publisher, and (b) the recipient's knowledge of the defamatory matter will be of service in the lawful protection of the well-being of the member of the family. (2) An occasion makes a publication conditionally privileged when the circumstances induce a correct or reasonable belief that (a) there is information that affects the well-being of a member of the immediate family of the recipient or of a third person, and (b) the recipient's knowledge of the defamatory matter will be of service in the lawful protection of the well-being of the member of the family, and (c) the recipient has requested the publication of the defamatory matter or is a person to whom its publication is otherwise within generally accepted standards of decent conduct. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 597. ¶ 37 Although we hold that Mr. O'Connor's position as coach of the Lehi High School women's basketball team was not of such civic importance as to render him a public official, we conclude that the Parents possess a legitimate interest in affairs of the basketball team of such a degree as to demand that we grant their statements the breathing space afforded by section 597. It is important to note that our reference to the Parents in this context is not limited to immediate family members of basketball team members, but also includes statements made by third parties so long as the statements were published within the generally accepted standards of decent conduct under the conditional privilege described in section 595 and recognized by this court in Brehany. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 595(1)(b); Brehany, 812 P.2d at 58. This standard does not shield defamatory statements that abuse the conditional privilege, but it does protect those defendants who are not immediate family members of women on the team. The Parents may have abused and therefore lost this conditional privilege as a refuge if, for example, they knew their statements regarding Mr. O'Connor were false or acted with a reckless disregard as to their falsity, see Restatement (Second) of Torts § 600, exceeded the privilege's purpose in making their statements, see id. § 603, or made statements to an individual or in a manner not reasonably believed to be necessary for the accomplishment of the privilege's purpose, see id. §§ 604, 605, 605A. See also Hales v. Commercial Bank, 114 Utah 186, 197 P.2d 910, 913 (1948) (`The publisher's lack of belief in the truth of the defamatory matter published, or his lack of reasonable grounds for so believing, while immaterial to the existence of the privileged occasion, is important as constituting an abuse of the occasion which deprives him of the protection which it would otherwise afford.' (quoting Restatement of Torts § 594 cmt. b (1938))). Although we have not yet had occasion to formally adopt all the potential means to abuse the privilege cited in the Restatement, they all enjoy close ties to common sense and thus appear worthy of our confidence. ¶ 38 Whether a statement is entitled to the protection of a conditional privilege presents a question of law; whether the holder of the privilege lost it due to abuse presents a question of fact. Wayment v. Clear Channel Broad., Inc., 2005 UT 25, ¶ 53, 116 P.3d 271; Brehany, 812 P.2d at 58; Combes v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 119 Utah 407, 228 P.2d 272, 274-75 (1951). The district court's ruling did not address this conditional privilege issue and, therefore, did not consider whether Mr. O'Connor sufficiently carried his burden to demonstrate the existence of a genuine factual issue regarding the Parents' abuse of their privilege. Consistent with our authority to affirm a district court on alternative grounds, we could canvass the record and make this determination in the first instance. Instead, we elect to cede this task to the district court as we have ceded the task of ascertaining the susceptibility of the Parents' statements to defamatory meaning.