Court Opinion

ID: 9626339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:09:02.801251+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:25.961068
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I concur in that part of the majority decision which reverses the judgment for refusal of the trial court to allow plaintiffs to amend. I dissent, however, from the holding that the publication of the photograph alone did not violate plaintiffs’ right of privacy.
It is difficult to ascertain upon what ground the majority opinion rests as will hereafter appear. As outlined in Gill v. Curtis Pub. Co., 38 Cal.2d 273 [239 P.2d 630], and authorities there cited, there are two main questions involved in right of privacy cases: (1) Is the publication of a character which would offend the feelings and sensibilities of the ordinary person; and (2) if it does so offend, is there such a public interest in the subject matter of the publication with reference to its news or educational significance that it may be published with impunity. In the first instance the question is whether there has been any tort (violation of the right of privacy) committed, and in the second, having found the tort, is it privileged.
Referring to the second question first, it should be quite obvious that there is no news or educational value whatsoever in the photograph alone. It depicts two persons (plaintiffs) in an amorous pose. There is nothing to show whether they are or are not married. While some remote news significance might be attached to persons in such a pose on the theory that the public likes and is entitled to see persons in such a pose, there is no reason why the publisher need invade the privacy of John and Jane Doe for his purpose. He can employ models for that purpose and the portion of the public interested will never know the difference but its maudlin curiosity will be appeased.
For the same reasons the discussion in the majority opinion to the effect that plaintiffs consented to the publication because they assumed the pose in a public place is fallacious. But in addition, such a theory is completely at odds with the violation of the right of privacy. By plaintiffs’ doing what they did in view of a tiny fraction of the public, does not mean that they consented to observation by the millions *233of readers of the defendant’s magazine. In effect, the majority holding means that anything anyone does outside of his own home is with consent to the publication thereof, because, under those circumstances he waives his right of privacy even though there is no news value in the event. If such were the case, the blameless exposure of a portion of the naked body of a man or woman in a public place as the result of inefficient buttons, hooks or other clothes-holding devices could be freely photographed and widely published with complete immunity. The majority opinion confuses the situation, as have some of the other cases, with the question of newsworthiness. It has been said that when a person is involved in either a public or private event, voluntarily or involuntarily, of news value, he has waived his right of privacy. Plainly such is not the case where the event is involuntary such as the victim- of a holdup. As we said in Gill v. Curtis Pub. Co., supra, 38 Cal.2d 273, 281: “It should be observed, that referring to the use of a person’s likeness for a legitimate public interest as not actionable because it indicates a waiver by the person of his right, is of doubtful validity, for it has been applied whether the publication having news value arose out of an incident of his own making or involuntarily and without his fault thrust upon him.” There is no basis for the conclusion that the second a person leaves the portals of his home he consents to have his photograph taken under all circumstances thereafter. There being no legitimate public interest, there is no excuse for the publication.
The first ground, that the picture would not offend the senses of an ordinary person, is equally untenable. It is alleged in plaintiffs’ complaint, and admitted by the demurrer that it so offended them. It is then a matter of proof at the trial. Certainly reasonable men could view the picture as showing plaintiffs in a sultry or sensual pose. For this court to say as a matter of law that such portrayal would not seriously offend the feelings of an ordinary man is to take an extreme view, to say the least. The question is one for the trier of fact. (Gill v. Curtis Pub. Co., supra, 38 Cal.2d 273, 280.) If it is in part a question of law it is so only to the extent that the right does not extend to “supersensitiveness or agoraphobia.” (41 Am.Jur., Privacy, § 12.) An examination of the photograph shows that it would offend the feelings of persons other than oversensitive ones.
*234Finally, adding to the confusion of the precise ground upon which it rests, the majority opinion makes point of the fact that the picture was not used for advertising purposes, and that if it did not hold as it does, there would be liability for a person’s picture appearing among others in a parade. Obviously the first has no bearing upon whether an ordinary man would be offended. The offense would exist or not exist regardless of whether it was used for advertising. The second adds nothing because the parade and those engaging in it are matters of public interest and the persons engaging therein are intentionally placing themselves on public display — parade.
In announcing a rule of law defining the right of a private citizen to be left alone, and not have his photograph published to the four winds, especially when he is depicted in an uncomplimentary pose, courts should consider the effect of such publication upon the sensibility of the ordinary private citizen, and not upon the sensibility of those persons who seek and enjoy publicity and notoriety and seeing their pictures on public display, or those who are in the “public eye” such as public officials, clergymen, lecturers, actors and others whose professional careers bring them in constant contact with the public and in whom the public or some segment thereof is interested. Obviously anything the latter group may do or say has news or educational value—such cannot be said of the persons engaged in private business or employment who constitute more than 90 per cent of our population. These private citizens, who desire to be left alone, should have and enjoy a right of privacy so long as they do nothing which can reasonably be said to have news value. Certainly this right is entitled to protection. It seems to me that the law should be so molded as to protect the right of the 90 per cent who do not desire publicity or notoriety and who may be offended by publications such as that here involved. And, when the right of privacy of such a person is violated, and redress is sought in the courts for the indignity suffered, the courts should apply the general rules applicable to the redress of wrongs and submit the issues of fact to a jury when demanded. But the majority of this court, following its present trend, has again seen fit to deny plaintiffs their constitutional right to a jury trial on the issues of fact here presented by arrogating to itself both the fact-finding and lawmaking power. To this holding I most emphatically dissent.