Court Opinion

ID: 9464510
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:35:48.957799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:40.931678
License: Public Domain

WEICK, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority that the gist of plaintiff’s action was libel. Plaintiff’s allegations in his Complaint contained counts in addition to libel, namely, counts of negligence and malpractice, interference with contractual relations, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, which were obviously an endeavor to avoid Kentucky’s one year statute of limitations applicable to suits for libel or slander. The endeavor failed. The majority was correct in holding that under Kentucky law the one year statute of limitations was applicable to all counts. Carr v. Texas Eastern Transmission Corp., 344 S.W.2d 619 (Ky.1961). Cf. Underwriters at Lloyd’s v. Peerless Storage Co., 561 F.2d 20 (6th Cir. 1977).
Plaintiff overlooks the fact that there was no contractual relationship between plaintiff and defendant. Plaintiff was not a patient, nor a customer, of the defendant. Plaintiff’s employer contracted with defendant whereby defendant agreed to interview plaintiff and other employees of the *112employer company, to administer psychological tests to the employees, and to provide a written evaluation of the tests to the company.
Plaintiff voluntarily submitted to the tests. The defendant made his written report to the company on or about October 4, 1973. Plaintiff so alleged in his Complaint. This is the date when the statute of limitations began to run. Barnett v. Louisville & Nashville R. R., 407 F.2d 133 (6th Cir. 1969).
There was no agreement or understanding of any kind, either express or implied, that plaintiff was to receive a copy of the report. The agreement between defendant and the company provided that the report or its contents was not to be brought to the attention of plaintiff by any one other than by the defendant himself. This recognized that the defendant, as a psychologist, would be better able to explain to the defendant his (psychologist’s) evaluation, if defendant wanted an explanation, i. e., better than a layman’s explanation. Plaintiff does not claim that the defendant gave him a copy of the report. He even asserts now that the defendant concealed the report from him. It is therefore fairly to be inferred that plaintiff must have secured a copy of the report only from his employer, and probably at the time plaintiff was demoted.
The situation here is analogous to that of credit agencies such as Dun and Bradstreet, and Retail Credit Company. These agencies make credit investigations of applicants for credit and furnish to their subscribers written reports of the result of their investigations. These agencies do not furnish copies of their reports to the credit applicants whom they investigate. The rules and regulations of these agencies which provide that their credit reports are to be kept confidential do not constitute fraud or concealment of fraud. The agencies owe no duty to the persons whom they investigate to furnish to them copies of the credit reports that they render to their subscribers.
This was so held in Wilson v. Retail Credit Co., 438 F.2d 1043, 1045-46 (5th Cir. 1971), where the Court adopted the opinion of the District Court, stating in part:
Section 732 Mississippi Code 1942 provides that all actions for libel shall commence within one year next after such action accrued, and not after. If any claim arose or accrued on this report, it did so when the report was received by defendant’s customer, and not when plaintiff discovered its existence. The defendant had no duty or obligation to reveal the contents of its confidential report to the plaintiff although it related to her. That rule as to the time of accrual of a right of action for libel is stated in McCarlie v. Atkinson, 77 Miss. 594, 27 So. 641. That decision firmly declared the rule to be that an action accrued, if at all, when the report was opened and read by the party to whom it was addressed and that no action of the recipient of the report could constitute concealment. There is nothing in this record before the court to show the existence of any fraud on the part of the defendant. Its rules and regulations and agreements with its customers to keep its reports confidential certainly do not amount to a fraud or the concealment of any fraud within the purview of § 742 Mississippi Code 1942 which provides: “If a person liable to any personal action shall fraudulently conceal the cause of action from the knowledge of the person entitled thereto, the cause of action shall be deemed to have first accrued at, and not before, the time at which such fraud shall be, or with reasonable diligence might have been, first known or discovered.” Fraud must be stated in specifics and not in conclusion-ary terms. The general rule is that this one year statute applying to libel actions commenced to run when the injury occurred and not at the time of discovery. The public policy of repose inherent in these statutes provides the reason and dictates an application of such policy in a case of this kind where the defendant owed the plaintiff no duty but to exercise good faith in a fair report of facts as revealed to them by their informants as it sought credit information about her.
*113There is nothing before the court in this case in response to said motion for summary judgment to specifically show the existence of any genuine issue of material fact in this case disentitling the defendant to a judgment as a matter of law.
The motion of the defendant for a summary judgment will be sustained for the reasons indicated. A judgment accordingly may be presented.
The Court followed the general rule that the statute of limitations applicable to a libel action commences to run when the injury occurs and not when the libel is discovered. The exception is a malpractice action which is not applicable here. Caudill v. Arnett, 481 S.W.2d 668 (Ky.1972).
In Hackworth v. Hart, 474 S.W.2d 377 (Ky.1971), the Court held:
Ordinarily, unless the conduct of the defendant amounts to an absconding or concealment or obstructs the prosecution of the action, it will not toll the running of the Statute of Limitations.
The Court further held that in a malpractice action the statute of limitations commences to run at the time the plaintiff discovered or in the exercise of ordinary care should have discovered the injury.
In the present case, in my opinion, there was no evidence of concealment and the uncontroverted evidence was to the effect that plaintiff, in the exercise of ordinary care, could have discovered the alleged libel shortly after it was published, and did actually discover the libel in adequate time to have brought his action within the one year statutory period.
It is obvious that plaintiff’s claim of concealment was purely an afterthought. It is noteworthy that in his Complaint, filed on May 12, 1975, consisting of four Counts spread over six pages, there is no allegation of fraudulent concealment, or any concealment. This claim was not injected into the case until after the case was pending for more than eight months.
In his findings of fact the District Judge stated:
The plaintiff’s second amended complaint was not tendered herein until after the final hearing herein and after the ruling of the Court on February 20,1976, dismissing the complaint.
The Court did not grant leave to file the second amended complaint. In that complaint plaintiff made the following conclu-sory allegations:
The defendant deliberately and fraudulently concealed the report from the plaintiff and deliberately and fraudulently mislead the plaintiff into believing that any report concerning him would be favorable, as a result of which the plaintiff had no reason to believe that any report submitted by the defendant would be defamatory of him.
The fact that the report made by the defendant to the company was labelled confidential; the fact that it was distributed only to the president of plaintiff’s employer; the fact that defendant’s agreement with the company provided that the only way plaintiff could learn about the contents of the report was by meeting with the defendant, does not constitute fraudulent concealment. Wilson v. Retail Credit Co., supra.
The majority states:
We can find no support in the record for the district court’s finding that the plaintiff knew that he could learn the contents of the report through the defendant and that the report was available to him.
I do not so read the finding of the District Court. To me the Court’s finding reads as follows:
The plaintiff knew that a report of his testing would be prepared and submitted to the Company and same was available to him through the defendant.
As to the finding that “plaintiff knew that a report would be prepared and submitted to the company,” this was alleged by the plaintiff in Count I paragraphs 6 and 7 of the Complaint, and there should be no question about it.
*114With respect to the finding that “same [the report] was available to him through the defendant,” the answer of defendant to interrogatory No. 25 stated that the agreement between defendant and the company was as follows:
The agreement between the defendant and the American Bank Stationery Company was that under no condition would the report or its contents ever be brought to the attention of the plaintiff by any one other than the defendant himself.
The plaintiff did in fact secure a copy of the report, not from the defendant, but from the company, on or about April 22, 1964. There is no proof that he made any effort to obtain a copy of the report at any time earlier than that date.
If any confusion actually existed over the interpretation of the findings of Chief Judge Rhodes Bratcher, it could have been clarified if Judge Bratcher were still living, but unfortunately he has since deceased. In my opinion this case does not warrant a remand for a new hearing before another District Judge, who is unfamiliar with the issues, and who has his own problems in handling an overcrowded docket.
The burden of proof in this case was upon the plaintiff to prove grounds for avoiding the applicable Kentucky one year statute of limitations. Admittedly, plaintiff did not file his action within the one year period although he did learn of the contents of the report within the statutory period and had about six months thereafter in which to file the action. He made no effort to learn about the report which he knew the defendant had made to his employer on or .about October 4, 1973. He admits that he learned of the report some time after April 22,1974, at least when he was demoted by his employer. He did not file his action until May 12, 1975.
Plaintiff offered no proof that the report was unavailable to him prior to April 22, 1974. His action fails for lack of any proof to support his claims of fraudulent concealment.
Further, plaintiff neglected to offer any proof that he exercised reasonable care and diligence to ascertain the contents of the report.
The District Court was justified in granting summary judgment on the uncontro-verted facts of the case, and its judgment should be affirmed.