Court Opinion

ID: 9653458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:46:54.241725+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:59.097749
License: Public Domain

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
I think there should be a new trial. We all agree that the three reports on Bunn were privileged communications and privately made, and that there could be no recovery unless they were made both falsely and with actual malice. We agree too that the malice of the employee Cohen will make his corporate employer liable if he acted within the scope of his employment in issuing the false statements. There is no contention that any corporate officer, nor even dark the Manager of the Miami office who employed Cohen and actually mailed out the reports, knew they were not true or had any ill .will towards Bunn. Cohen was a mere investigator, who reported to Clark *107what he found out about people on whom reports were requested. He was in the army of the United States in Europe when the case was tried, and further delay to get his evidence was denied. The defendant corporation was without evidence as to where Cohen got his information about Bunn, or as to Cohen’s state of mind toward Bunn. The only evidence on that is what Bunn said Cohen said; and in my opinion it is very weak and hardly credible, but that was a jury question. I must take it that Cohen had ill-will towards Bunn. Nevertheless justice has missed its mark by the jury giving $2,500 as smart money, or punitive damages, contrary to law.
No actual damages were proven. The first report, made to the Maccabees when Bunn applied to them for employment, did no harm, for he got the employment and held it several years, and as long as he wished. The second report was also to the Maccabees when Bunn applied to them for insurance. He obtained the insurance. The third report was to Guaranty Life Insurance Company when he applied to them for a job. There is no proof at all that the report had anything to do with his not getting it, or that it was a better job than he then had with the Maccabees. There was no broadcasting of the false reports. No one ever saw them except the addressees, save that Bunn himself purloined the first from his employer’s desk.
This utter lack of proof of loss of money or general repute did not, however, entitle appellant to a directed verdict, for Bunn could recover something to vindicate his right. But not $2,500 against this personally innocent corporation. The trial centered on Cohen’s malice and the effect of it in making a case against the corporation. It had the effect of destroying the privilege of the communications, and rendering the corporation liable for compensatory damages, but did not make it liable for punitive damages, there being no authorization or ratification of Cohen’s malicious acts. Cohen alone would be liable for punitive damages. Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Brewer, 56 App.D.C. 283, 12 F.2d 818, 46 A.L.R. 1499; Lake Shore & M. S. R. Co. v. Prentice, 147 U.S. 101, 13 S.Ct. 261, 37 L.Ed. 97. There is nothing to the contrary in the Florida decisions.
Now the suit expressly claimed compensatory and punitive damages thrice repeated. The judge nowhere in his charge gave any instruction whatever on what damages were recoverable. The jury naturally thought both could be given if Cohen was acting in the scope of his authority. While the appellant made no request for instructions on the point, I think the failure to say anything was a fundamental fault in the charge, which has borne fruit in a verdict not justified by the law and the evidence. “It is the duty of a court, in its relation to the jury, to protect parties from unjust verdicts arising from ignorance of the rules of law and of evidence, from impulse of passion or prejudice, or from any other violation of lawful rights in the conduct of a trial. This is done by making plain to them the issues they are to try, by admitting only such evidence as is proper in such issues, and rejecting all else; by instructing them in the rules of law by which that evidence is to be examined and applied; and finally when necessary by setting aside a verdict which is unsupported by evidence or contrary to law;” Pleasants v. Fant, 22 Wall. 116, 22 L.Ed. 780. Norfolk & Western Ry. Co. v. Holbrook, 235 U.S. 625, 35 S.Ct. 143, 59 L.Ed. 392. “It is the duty of the trial judge of his own motion and without request to correctly instruct the jury as to the proper measure of damages.” Burns v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 233 Pa. 304, 82 A. 246, 248, Ann.Cas.l913B, 811; 64 C. J., Trial, § 557. The motion for a new trial ought to have been granted, and discretion was abused in not granting it.