Opinion ID: 1798623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Gertz Standard

Text: The case of Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974), recast the law of defamation relating to libel actions brought by private individuals against publishers. The United States Supreme Court, desirous that the states retain substantial latitude in their efforts to enforce a real remedy for defamatory falsehood injurious to the reputation of a private individual, ruled that application of the actual malice test, as defined in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964), and proposed in Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 91 S.Ct. 1811, 29 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971), would abridge this legitimate state interest to a degree we find unacceptable. Gertz, supra, 418 U.S. at 346, 94 S.Ct. at 3010. In granting the states this latitude in formulating an appropriate standard to protect the reputation of private individuals, the United States Supreme Court has made clear the extent of this latitude and this Court is so bound. The appropriate portion of the Gertz decision reads: The common law of defamation is an oddity of tort law, for it allows recovery of purportedly compensatory damages without evidence of actual loss. Under the traditional rules pertaining to actions for libel, the existence of injury is presumed from the fact of publication. Juries may award substantial sums as compensation for supposed damage to reputation without any proof that such harm actually occurred. The largely uncontrolled discretion of juries to award damages where there is no loss unnecessarily compounds the potential of any system of liability for defamatory falsehood to inhibit the vigorous exercise of First Amendment freedoms. Additionally, the doctrine of presumed damages invites juries to punish unpopular opinion rather than to compensate individuals for injury sustained by the publication of a false fact. More to the point, the States have no substantial interest in securing for plaintiffs such as this petitioner gratuitous awards of money damages far in excess of any actual injury. We would not, of course, invalidate state law simply because we doubt its wisdom, but here we are attempting to reconcile state law with a competing interest grounded in the constitutional command of the First Amendment. It is therefore appropriate to require that state remedies for defamatory falsehood reach no farther than is necessary to protect the legitimate interest involved. It is necessary to restrict defamation plaintiffs who do not prove knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth to compensation for actual injury. We need not define actual injury, as trial courts have wide experience in framing appropriate jury instructions in tort actions. Suffice it to say that actual injury is not limited to out-of-pocket loss. Indeed, the more customary types of actual harm inflicted by defamatory falsehood include impairment of reputation and standing in the community, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering. Of course, juries must be limited by appropriate instructions, and all awards must be supported by competent evidence concerning the injury, although there need be no evidence which assigns an actual dollar value to the injury. [Emphasis added.] 418 U.S. at 349-350, 94 S.Ct. at 3011-12. We adhere to the so-called  Gertz rule and have extended its application to those suits involving private individuals exclusively. Bryan v. Brown, 339 So.2d 577 (Ala. 1976). In Bryan, this Court held: Although Gertz was a libel action brought by a private individual against a `publisher' in the narrow sense, nevertheless the holding in that case, so directly involving the breadth of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, is applicable to the facts of the instant case insofar as it affects the right of our state to award damages in defamation actions.... 339 So.2d at 583-584. This Court has decided that the Gertz rule shall apply to non-media defendants; therefore, since Gertz abolishes the notion of presumed damages and limits compensation in defamation cases which are actionable per se to recovery for actual injuries only, we hereby recognize this to be the law of Alabama. Although in Gertz the Court does not define the concept of actual injury, deferring instead to the experience of the trial courts in framing appropriate jury instructions in this kind of tort action, Gertz, supra, 418 U.S. at 350, 94 S.Ct. at 3012, the Court nonetheless makes unmistakably clear that in defamation cases, the  juries must be limited by appropriate instructions.  [Emphasis added.] This is the fatal flaw which necessitates our ordering a new trial in the present case.