Court Opinion

ID: 9725203
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:34:37.52667+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:12.524869
License: Public Domain

KING, J.
I concur but write separately to urge the California Supreme Court to grant review in this case.
The real issue is what the California Supreme Court intended when it ordered the unqualified reversal. While we can only speculate as to that intent, the California Supreme Court can speak definitively. This case was particularly suited for transfer to the California Supreme Court, before our decision, upon petition by a party. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 27.5.) Absent such a petition we had no choice but to try cutting the Gordian knot, but unlike Alexander the Great we can now ask Gordius himself to untie it.
I also suggest that, whatever the California Supreme Court’s intent, an unusual equitable consideration favors a grant of review and retrial order in this case. In its prior opinion, the California Supreme Court misread a pivotal United States Supreme Court decision, Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S. Inc. (1984) 466 U.S. 485, 512-513 [80 L.Ed.2d 502, 514-524, 104 S.Ct. 1949], and consequently misinterpreted the standard of independent appellate review in First Amendment libel cases.
The trial court in Bose had determined that certain testimony as to lack of malice was not credible. In its McCoy opinion, the California Supreme Court stated that in Bose the United States Supreme Court rejected the trial *1666court’s credibility determination. (McCoy v. Hearst Corp. (1986) 42 Cal.3d 835, 844 [231 Cal.Rptr. 518, 727 P.2d 711].)
Subsequently, however, in Harte-Hanks, Inc. v. Connaughton (1989) 491 U.S. 657, 689, fn. 35 [105 L.Ed.2d 562, 589, 109 S.Ct. 2678], the United States Supreme Court repudiated this interpretation of Bose. The petitioner in Harte-Hanks had argued, as the California Supreme Court stated in McCoy, that the Bose decision had rejected the trial court’s credibility determination. The Harte-Hanks opinion disapproved this interpretation of Bose, explaining that in Bose the court had actually accepted the trial court’s credibility determination but had been unwilling to infer actual malice. (Ibid.) The Harte-Hanks opinion reiterated that even within the context of independent appellate review, substantial deference is to be afforded to trial court credibility determinations “because the trier of fact has had the ‘opportunity to observe the demeanor of the witnesses ....’” (Id. at p. 688 [105 L.Ed.2d at p. 589], quoting Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S. Inc., supra, 466 U.S. 485 at pp. 499-500 [80 L.Ed.2d at pp. 515-516].)
The California Supreme Court’s erroneous reading of Bose was apparently critical to its decision. The court said, “Both the principles announced in Bose and the manner in which the high court carried out its functions of independent review, are the guide to be followed in reviewing the evidence at hand.” (McCoy v. Hearst Corp., supra, 42 Cal.3d at p. 845, italics added.) Had the California Supreme Court correctly interpreted Bose and applied the standard of independent appellate review with due deference to trial court credibility determinations, it might well have affirmed the judgment. It is, of course, too late to correct this mistake, but the California Supreme Court can do the next best thing by ordering a retrial.
Appellants’ petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied May 30, 1991. Panelli, J. did not participate therein.