Court Opinion

ID: 9608609
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:15:07.31042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:07:13.183499
License: Public Domain

CORCORAN, Justice,
specially concurring:
I agree with the opinion of the court, except its reaffirmation of Yetman decided in a 3-2 opinion. The result in Yetman should have been the same as we reach here. See Yetman v. English, 168 Ariz. 71, 82-83, 811 P.2d 323, 334-35, Cameron, J., dissenting in part, 168 Ariz. at 82-83, 811 P.2d at 334-35, and Corcoran, J., dissenting, 168 Ariz. at 83, 811 P.2d at 335 (1991); and Yetman v. English, 163 Ariz. 73, 76, 786 P.2d 403, 406, Livermore, J., dissenting (App.1989).
MARTONE, Justice, concurring in the judgment and in the opinion in part.
I agree with today’s decision, but believe we must reject Yetman v. English, 168 Ariz. 71, 811 P.2d 323 (1991), to reach it. I do not believe that the court’s attempt to distinguish Yetman is persuasive. Thus, whether the court admits it or not, Yetman does not survive today’s decision.
As the court acknowledges, ante at 203, 848 P.2d at 288, the court of appeals relied on Yetman in concluding that Turner’s claim was “provably false.” Bound by Yetman, it could have reached no other conclusion. We are not so constrained.
In Yetman, two members of this court thought that the words “[w]hat kind of communist do we have up there that thinks it’s improper to protect your interests?” could reasonably be interpreted as stating actual facts, and were provably false. Id. at 80-81, 811 P.2d at 332-33.
In my view, Yetman ignored the letter and the spirit of Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1, 20, 110 S.Ct. 2695, 2706, 111 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990). As this court notes, ante at 207, 848 P.2d at 292, Milko-vich expressly used as a nonactionable example, the words “[i]n my opinion, Mayor Jones shows his abysmal ignorance by accepting the teachings of Marx and Lenin.” 497 U.S. at 20, 110 S.Ct. at 2706. The Milkovich example and the Yetman language are indistinguishable. To call someone a communist, in contrast to stating as a fact that one is a member of the communist party, is neither a statement of fact nor provably false.1
Contrast calling someone a communist under Yetman with the words in issue here, that the police officer’s “manner bordered on police brutality.” A manner which borders on police brutality is far more likely to be understood as a statement of fact than a characterization of someone as a communist. Bordering on police brutality conjures up an image of physical abuse. Physical abuse is factual, not abstract. Calling someone a commu*211nist in the context of Yetman is not likely to be understood as factual. It is likely to be understood as ideological rhetoric. And if that were not enough, how can it be said that being a communist is provably false? What litmus test does one use to test the label? Marx? Engels? Lenin? Gorbachev? Sartre? Kazantzakis?
In contrast, one could more easily prove as false that one’s manners bordered on police brutality by calling witnesses to testify about those manners and to show that there was no physical abuse involved. Which is easier to prove?
For these reasons, I do not see how we can reach today’s conclusion without overruling Yetman. If Yetman is to survive, today’s decision cannot stand. Because I agree with the court that the words here are not actionable, I am of the view that Yetman has been interred sub silentio.

. At common law, calling someone a communist was not always even defamatory. Whether such an assertion was defamatory depended upon the prevailing political climate. McAn-drew v. Scranton Republican Pub. Co., 364 Pa. 504, 72 A.2d 780, 784 (1950) (not defamatory), Levy v. Gelber, 175 Misc. 746, 25 N.Y.S.2d 148, 149 (Sup.Ct.1941) (defamatory), Garriga v. Rich-field, 174 Misc. 315, 20 N.Y.S.2d 544, 549 (Sup. Ct.1940) (not defamatory). See generally Grant v. Reader's Digest Ass'n, 151 F.2d 733 (2d Cir. 1945), cert. denied, 326 U.S. 797, 66 S.Ct. 492, 90 L.Ed. 485 (1945) and Torts — Label of “Communist Dominated" Held Libelous Per Se, 1953 Wash.U.L.Q. 331.