Court Opinion

ID: 9685035
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:21:33.115303+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:25.993307
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). This case involves the accommodation of two societal interests: The protection of the constitutional right of free speech and free press and the protection of persons from injuries to reputation.
I dissent because I conclude that by adopting a too narrow interpretation of the concept of public figure while applying the negligence standard to defamation suits by private persons against media defendants the majority does not provide adequate “breathing space” for freedom of the press and for freedom of speech. I also dissent because the majority, without adequate justification, gives non-media defendants less protection in the exercise of their constitutional right of free speech than it gives media defendants in the exercise of their constitutional right of free press.
Nature of the Plaintiff — Public Figure; Private Person. While Denny holds no public office, and is not a person of such notoriety that he is a public figure for all purposes, I conclude, using the test set forth by the majority, that he is a public figure for the limited purpose of the Koehring controversy. The United States Supreme Court has not set forth a clear, easy to understand or easy to apply statement of the attributes of a public figure. The majority reads Gertz as establishing a two-step test for determining public figure status: *666does a public controversy exist; has the defendant voluntarily thrust himself or herself into the controversy. Further, the majority correctly acknowledges that Gertz1 and subsequent cases2 frown on courts determining *667whether a particular controversy is a public controversy and indicate that the primary focus in determining whether the plaintiff is a public figure should be on whether the plaintiff voluntarily thrust himself or herself into the controversy. Nevertheless, the majority errs both in relying too heavily on an analysis of the substantive nature of the controversy and then in concluding that the controversy is not of public interest or concern. The majority also errs with respect to the second element of public figure status, that is, whether the plaintiff voluntarily thrust himself into the vortex of a controversy.
The majority concludes that there was no public controversy, because “the Koehring stockholder disputes did not have an impact outside of those immediately interested in the Koehring corporation.” Supra, p. 650. The majority unfortunately never explains who it thinks are those “immediately interested in the Koehring corporation.” If the phrase “immediately interested in the Koeh-ring corporation” refers to the shareholders, the majority is talking about a dispute that has an impact on approximately 11,500 people. If the phrase “immediately interested in the Koehring corporation” refers to suppliers to and customers, competitors and employees of the corporation, and people living in communities in which plants are located (and I think all these persons can be considered as “immediately interested in the Koehring corporation”), the majority is talking about a dispute that has an impact on many thousands of people. Koehring, a Fortune 500, publicly owned, publicly traded, international corporation with headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, employs between 10,000 and 11,000 persons at 23 plants in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, England and Japan and has sales offices in other countries. On how many thousands must the *668controversy have an impact in order for the majority to consider the matter a public controversy ?
Public policy favors the publication of information about publicly held business entities. Federal and state securities laws are based on the theory that disclosure protects the integrity of the marketplace. And the marketplace affects all of us. Our country is committed to the protection of free enterprise; great economic and social power thus rests in private hands, and private economic interests and corporate entities vitally affect the lives of all of us. Citizens have a legitimate and substantial interest in the conduct of business in this country, and the guarantee of free speech and free press includes uninhibited debate about the operations of publicly held business entities. The first amendment is not limited to the issues of politics or government. “Freedom of discussion, if it would fulfill its historic function in this nation, must embrace all issues about which information is needed or appropriate to enable the members of society to cope with the exigencies of their period.” Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 102 (1940).
Instead of analyzing the substantive nature of the controversy, the majority should have asked whether the Koehring controversy was an existing publicly debated dispute into which Denny had voluntarily thrust himself before the alleged defamation occurred. It was. Before the news story in issue, Denny had sought media coverage and governmental agency attention and cooperated fully when the media sought him. For about a year before the allegedly defamatory story appeared, numerous articles appeared in the Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel, and The Wall Street Journal concerning the Koehring controversy, and the Dow Jones wire service carried word of the controversy. Hence this case, unlike Hutchinson v. Proxmire, is not one in which the defendants created their own defense by thrusting the plaintiff into a public debate. It was not *669the Business Week story that made Denny part of the dispute.
Although the majority concedes that Denny deliberately thrust himself into the forefront of the dispute to influence the resolution of the issue and also deliberately sought, media coverage, the majority concludes that Denny is not a public figure because by the time Denny talked to Santry, Mertz had resigned and Denny was no longer attempting to influence a public controversy. It is obvious that even if the controversy had ended a few weeks before the story, and I am not conceding that it had, Denny had not ceased to be a public figure in regard to the Koehring controversy in the short span of a few weeks.
The majority makes the factual determination that Denny did not have media access and then concludes that because he had no access to the media he was not a public figure. The majority misreads Gertz. In Gertz the court did not say the person had to have media access to be a public figure. The court merely said in Gertz that public figures “usually enjoy significantly greater access” to media than private individuals and therefore the court was justified in adopting a general rule giving public figures less protection against defamation than “private persons.” Gertz, 418 U.S. at 344. Only rarely does a public officer or public figure have such prominence as to command the type of media attention which will provide a meaningful chance to rebut defamatory falsehood and defend against it.
The majority also reasons that Denny is not a public figure because he was motivated by his private monetary interest and not by a general concern for corporate governance. The majority does not explain why Denny’s motivation for thrusting himself into the fray is relevant to the issue of whether he is a public figure.
Because Denny thrust himself to the forefront of a public controversy to influence the resolution of the dispute, thereby inviting media attention and comment, I *670would hold that Denny is a public figure and must prove actual malice in his suit against both media and non-media defendants. Because it is clear that the plaintiff will be unable to prove actual malice at trial by clear and convincing evidence, I would affirm the judgment of the circuit court granting summary judgment for the defendants.
Standard of Proof in the Defamation of a Private Person by a Media Defendant. The majority viewing Denny as a private person adopts the “negligence standard,” rather than the actual malice standard, in Denny’s suit against the media defendant. The due care standard may arguably represent a fair balance of society’s interest in protecting free speech and free press and society’s interest in protecting private persons from injury to reputation. I therefore could be persuaded to accept the application of the negligence standard to cases involving an alleged defamation by the media of a truly “private person,” if the majority did not so narrowly construe “public figure.”
The reason that New York Times v. Sullivan and Curtis Publishing v. Butts, 338 U.S. 130 (1967), require proof of actual malice in cases involving defamation of public officers and public figures is to ensure effective communication. The Supreme Court explained:
“Thus we consider this case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide open ....
“The First Amendment, said Judge Learned Hand, ‘presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues, than through any kind of authoritative selection.’ ” New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. at 270, quoting United States v. Associated Press, 52 F. Supp. 362, 372 (S.D. N.Y. 1943).
A too narrow reading of “public figure” deters media debate on public issues and contravenes the federal first amendment constitutional protection.
*671I believe the majority has in this case so narrowly interpreted the concept of public figure that its adoption of the standard of negligence for suits by private persons is not defensible. I could accept the adoption of the negligence standard only if the court fairly and reasonably interprets the concept of public figure in keeping with the purposes of the first amendment.
The Nature of the Defendant — Media; Non-Media. The United States Supreme Court has said that it has never decided the question “whether the New York Times standard can apply to an individual defendant rather than to a media defendant.” Hutchinson v. Proxmire, 443 U.S. 111, 133, n. 16 (1979).3
The majority in the case at bar undertakes the task of determining the extent to which the first amendment and the Wisconsin constitution are applicable to defamation actions against non-media persons. The majority implicitly makes a prediction that the United States Supreme Court will not extend New York Times and its progeny to defamatory expression by non-media persons and in the process concludes that the state constitution shall be interpreted in the same manner as the federal constitution. Thus the majority holds that the common law rules of defamation apply to non-media defendants. While this case is one in which, according to the majority, a non-media defendant (Mertz) has allegedly defamed a private person, it is unclear from the language and reasoning of the majority opinion whether the ma*672jority is adopting the common law of defamation for all non-media defendants, irrespective of the nature of the plaintiff (public officer, public figure or private person), or is restricting the adoption of the common law of defamation to cases of a private person suing a non-media defendant.
I do not think we need engage in speculation as to what the United States Supreme Court will say about this issue under the federal constitution. Regardless of federal first amendment requirements, the majority has reached the incorrect result. The better approach, I believe, is that adopted by the American Law Institute in the Restatement of Torts (Second), namely that the same rules of defamation are applicable to the case whether the defendant is media or non-media. I reach this result for several reasons:
(1) The majority’s conclusion contravenes the state constitutional guarantee of Art. I, sec. 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution4 which differs from the first amendment5 in that the Wisconsin Constitution affirmatively guarantees each person the right to speak, write and publish “freely” while “being responsible for the abuse of that right.” There is nothing in the state constitution to lead me to conclude that the framers intended the words “freely” and “abuse of that right” to have different *673meanings for media and non-media persons. Why should a non-media defendant who defames a person have any less constitutional protection than a media defendant who defames the same person? Does the majority intend a non-media defendant to be subject to greater damages on less proof than is a media defendant? As the American Law Institute explains in the Restatement of Torts (Second), sec. 580B, Comment e, pp. 225-26 (1976) :
“. . . the protection of the First Amendment extends to freedom of speech as well as to freedom of the press, and the interests that must be balanced to obtain a proper accommodation are similar. It would seem strange to hold that the press, composed of professionals and causing much greater damage because of the wider distribution of the communication, can constitutionally be held liable only for negligence, but that a private person, engaged in a casual private conversation with a single person, can be held liable at his peril if the statement turns out to be false, without any regard to his lack of fault.”
The state constitution protects the right of all persons to speak, write and publish, and this court should be reluctant, without setting forth sufficient reason, to read the state constitution to create a privileged industry.6
(2) The majority’s classification of media and non-media defendants does not withstand the defendant’s challenge that the classification violates the equal protection guarantee of the state constitution.
*674(3) Regardless of state constitutional strictures, as a practical matter defamation law should apply equally to media and non-media defendants alike. Distinguishing between media and non-media raises the difficult question of identifying which defendants are media defendants and which are not. Are the publishers of handbills, labor union newspapers, local labor union newsletters, or neighborhood association newsletters media or non-media ?
Even if defendant Mertz is not a media person, his communication to Santry was not a “private” casual communication between two “private” people talking to each other. The majority portrays Mertz-Santry as a purely private communication. It was not. Mr. Mertz was not talking to Mr. Santry across the back fence about matters of personal interest. Ex-corporate officer Mertz was talking to a reporter who was interested in writing a story about Mertz and the controversy at Koehring.
(4) The common law of defamation, apart from the relatively recent injection of constitutional considerations, is renowned for its complexity. If we apply the same rules of defamation to media and non-media defendants, we can decrease, or at least not add to, the complexity of the law, and we can move toward consistency and simplicity in the law of defamation. Jacron Sales Co., Inc. v. Sindorf, 276 Md. 580, 350 A.2d 688, 696 (1976).
(5) The general rule is that the tort of defamation is a strict liability tort. In many instances, however, the application of the doctrines of “conditional privilege” and “abuse of privilege” means that the law of defamation in operation is not a strict liability tort but is a tort based on negligence. Thus the majority’s retention of the common law rules of defamation, along with the numerous privileges and their abuse, may result, in many cases, in the parties and the court unnecessarily taking a cumber*675some route to the application of a negligence standard. In the case at bar, for example, the majority refuses to apply the negligence standard but the conditional privilege appears to impose a “reasonable person” standard on Mertz. Supra, pp. 663, 664. See Restatement (Second) of Torts sec. 580B, comment e, pp. 230-31, sec. 592A, Special Note, pp. 259-260 (1977) ; Frakt, The Evolving Law of Defamation: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan to Getz v. Robert Welch, Inc. and Beyond, 6 Rutgers-Camden L. J. 471, 511 (1975).
For the reasons set forth above, I would reverse the decision of the court of appeals and affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

 The United States Supreme Court said in Gertz:
“[The ‘public or general interest’ test set forth in Rosenbloom,] would occasion the additional difficulty of forcing state and federal judges to decide on an ad hoc basis which publications address issues of ‘general or public interest’ and which do not — to determine, in the words of Mr. Justice Marshall, ‘what information is relevant to self-government.’ Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. at 79. We doubt the wisdom of committing this task to the conscience of judges.” 418 U.S. at 346.

 After Gertz the Supreme Court has focused on the plaintiff’s actions, not the substantive nature of the controversy. In Time, Inc. v. Firestone, 424 U.S. 448, 456 (1976), for instance, Justice Rehnquist said :
“It was our recognition and rejection of this weakness in the Rosenbloom test which led us in Gertz to eschew a subject-matter test for one focusing upon the character of the defamation plaintiff.”
More recently in Wolston v. Reader’s Digest Assn., Inc., 443 U.S. 157, 167 (1979), Justice Rehnquist said:
“We emphasized [in Gertz] that a court must focus on the ‘nature and extent of an individual’s participation in the particular controversy giving rise to the defamation.’ ”
In Hutchinson v. Proxmire, 443 U.S. 111, 135 (1979), Chief Justice Burger, quoting from Time, Inc. v. Firestone, supra, at 456, said:
“The ‘use of such subject-matter classifications to determine the extent of constitutional protection afforded defamatory falsehoods may too often result in an improper balance between the competing interests in this area.’ ”
Several United States Circuit Courts of Appeals have recognized in recent cases that the determination of a person’s status as a “public figure” must focus upon that person’s actions rather than the underlying controversy. See Waldbaum v. Fairchild Publications, Inc., 627 F.2d 1287 (D.C. Cir. 1980); Brewer v. Memphis Pub. Co., Inc., 626 F.2d 1238, 1254 (5th Cir. 1980); Littlefield v. Fort Dodge Messenger, 614 F.2d 581, 584 (8th Cir. 1980).

 Several commentators have pointed out that in the New York Times case the Supreme Court held that individual non-media defendants as well as the media defendants were protected by the constitutional “actual malice rule” where a public officer was involved. See also Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64 (1964); Henry v. Collins, 380 U.S. 366 (1966); St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727 (1968). Apparently the United States Supreme Court has not decided any cases in which a public figure or a private person sought damages from a non-media defendant.

 Art. I, sec. 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution provides:
“Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for "the abuse of that right, and no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions or indictments for libel, the truth may be given in evidence, and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libelous be true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact.”

 The first amendment, U.S. Const., provides:
“Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . . .”

 See First Nat’l Bank v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765, 781-83 (1978):
“The press cases emphasize the special and constitutionally recognized role of the institution in informing and educating the public, offering criticism, and providing a forum for discussion and debate .... But the press does not have a monopoly on either the First Amendment or the ability to enlighten . . . . Even decisions seemingly based on the individual’s right to express himself acknowledge that the expression may contribute to society’s edification.”