Opinion ID: 2279271
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: KLC's Claim of Absolute Privilege

Text: The existence of an absolute privilege is a question of law, to be determined by the trial judge, not the jury. Rogers v. Luttrell, 144 S.W.3d 841, 844 (Ky.App. 2004). In Compton v. Romans, 869 S.W.2d 24, 26 (Ky.1993), this Court recognized that historically the class of absolutely privileged communications are [sic] comparatively few, and that the courts have evinced a purpose not to extend that class. See also McAlister & Co. v. Jenkins, 214 Ky. 802, 284 S.W. 88, 90 (1926). Specifically, it was noted in McAlister: If in the discharge of a duty imposed by law a public official clothed with quasi judicial powers may have suspended over his head continually the threat of libel suits, it is apparent that his official conduct would be tempered by and tainted with the fear that he might be unjustly subjected to such actions. The policy of the law is therefore, and the reason of the rule is, that, although upon rare occasions judges and other public officials upon whom are imposed by law judicial or quasi judicial duties may maliciously slander or calumniate in the exercise of their authority, it is better that they should be protected upon such occasions by this absolute privilege than that the great body of such officials in the conscientious exercise of their duties should be hampered continually by the threat of such civil actions. Id. at 90-91. McAlister then extended the doctrine of absolute immunity to include libelous communications of certain heads of executive departments, provided the libelous communication is pertinent to the inquiry under investigation at the time, and where the administrative body was charged with the exercise of quasi judicial powers and the duty imposed upon its membership to take certain action after exercising those quasi judicial functions. Id. at 91. In Compton, we stated, [t]o determine the extent to which a public official shall have protection of the doctrine of absolute immunity, it is necessary to examine the lawful authority including such discretionary authority as may be reasonably implied, and the action taken which gives rise to the defamation claim. Compton, 869 S.W.2d at 27. We then decided that the Chairman of the State Racing Commission, for statements made in the performance of his duties, should enjoy an absolute privilege from defamation suits, because, [t]o facilitate implementation and fulfillment of the statutory purpose, the State Racing Commission was given broad rule-making, enforcement and adjudicatory authority. [10] In McAlister and Compton, we recognized that the defense of absolute privilege extends to executive officers of administrative agencies exercising quasi-judicial and regulatory authority. KLC contends that its officers should fall within that extension, reminding us that in Matthews v. Holland, 912 S.W.2d 459 (Ky.App.1995), the Court of Appeals held that the absolute privilege for executive officers extended to a county school superintendent. The Court in Matthews offered no explanation as to how school superintendents' duties and responsibilities compared with the kind of quasi-judicial authority identified in Compton and McAlister, and we therefore decline to endorse it here. The record before this Court does not establish that the KLC employees responsible for the termination memo were heads of executive departments charged with quasi-judicial authority, and the kind of broad rule-making, enforcement and adjudicatory authority needed to overcome our historical reluctance to expand the sphere of absolute privilege. We do not regard them as having absolute privilege or immunity from defamation claims. We also note, as described below in our discussion of post-judgment interest, the legislature expressly distanced KLC from the offices of state government by designating it as an independent, de jure municipal corporation. KRS 154A.020. KLC next argues that its conduct with respect to the termination memo is absolutely privileged because it was required by the Open Records Act to release the memo when WLKY requested it. One who is required by law to publish defamatory matters is absolutely privileged to publish it. Restatement (Second) of Torts, § 592A (1977). It is conceded that KRS 154A.020(1) renders KLC subject to the Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 et. seq. We have been directed to no prior decisions respecting the degree of privilege to be accorded defamatory matters disclosed pursuant to an open record request. Palmer v. Driggers, 60 S.W.3d 591 (Ky.App.2001) supports KLC's argument that personnel records of employees of public agencies are subject to disclosure under a formal open record request, and that those responsible for complying with the Open Records Act may be compelled to release information that proves embarrassing or humiliating to public employees. As noted in Palmer, the Act provides several exemptions which the affected individuals may invoke to protect their privacy interests, and a process for determining on a case-by-case basis whether the public interest in the disclosure, reflected in the Act outweighs the personal, privacy interest embodied in the various exemptions. We agree that an officer required by law to make a disclosure should not be held liable for having done so. But, the Hills' complaints allege more than the simple disclosure of documents prepared in the regular course of business, and placed in their personnel files. They presented evidence to show that their KLC supervisors maliciously created the defamatory memoranda so that they would be subject to an open records disclosure, and concealed the existence of the documents to impede the Hills' ability to invoke an exemption to the Open Records Act. While we agree with the Restatement that one who is required by law to publish defamatory matter is absolutely privileged to publish it, we also agree that the absolute privilege does not extend so far as to cloak with immunity one who, with a malicious purpose and under no legal compulsion to do so, creates defamatory material with the expectation that it would be published. Under the circumstances alleged by the Hills, KLC would have no more than a qualified privilege, to be considered by the jury based on evidence presented at trial. We conclude that the trial court correctly rejected KLC's claim of absolute privilege.