Court Opinion

ID: 9883894
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:24:10.905921+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:32.688101
License: Public Domain

LANSING, Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I join in that portion of the majority opinion designated parts 1, 2, 5 and 6. DSI, apparently laboring under a belief that cause was required to terminate Frankson’s employment, published statements about Frankson’s job performance which the jury found to be knowingly false or inaccurate. From this the jury could properly find malice under the standard approved in Stuempges v. Parke, Davis & Co., 297 N.W.2d 252, 257-58 (Minn.1980).
However, I cannot join in affirming the compensatory and punitive damages in this case. The “presumed damage” rule, once extensively followed throughout the United States, has come under increasing challenge. See Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 112, at 795-97 (W. Keeton 5th ed. 1984); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 621 (1977). Our supreme court has recently applied the presumed damage rule in defamation of an individual’s business reputation. Stuempges, 297 N.W.2d at 259. In affirming the award of presumed compensatory damages in Stuempges, the court specifically referred to the “devastating quality” of the defendant’s remarks. DSI’s publication was limited, and the statements do not possess the “devastating quality” of the remarks made by the employer in Stuempges.
Even more difficult to uphold is the jury’s award of $125,000 in punitive damages. As applied solely to the defamatory conduct, very few of the seven factors formulated by the trial court support the award of punitive damages. In the absence of extensive publication or evidence that DSI intended to use the defamatory statements to keep Frankson from obtaining employment, the issue of punitive damages should not have gone to the jury. See Hammersten v. Reiling, 262 Minn. 200, 209, 115 N.W.2d 259, 266 (1962) (punitive *572damages upheld for publication of article “designed to damage, if not destroy, plaintiff”).
I would reverse the award of punitive damages and grant a new trial on the issue of compensatory damages.