Court Opinion

ID: 9658069
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:45:53.365952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:51.213805
License: Public Domain

Cavanagh, C.J.
(concurring in the result). I agree with the result reached by my Brother Brickley’s opinion. I reach that result, however, by a somewhat different route. For the reasons stated below, I believe plaintiffs’ defamation claim is insupportable as a matter of law, and that defendants were entitled to pretrial summary judgment when they so moved in 1982.11 therefore agree that defendants are now entitled to a reversal of the Court of Appeals judgment presently before us, and a reinstatement of the circuit court’s directed verdict. I adopt Justice Brickley’s thorough statement of the facts.
I. APPELLATE REVIEW OF FALSITY
At the outset, I must respectfully disagree with my Brother Brickley’s conclusion that the underlying factual issue of falsity is subject to independent appellate review as a "constitutional fact” question. See ante, pp 109-113, 117-123. While I *135sympathize with the free speech concerns which animate my colleague’s analysis, I believe that analysis blurs the distinction between a defamation plaintiff’s acknowledged constitutional burden of proving falsity, and the nature of the issue of falsity itself.
As my colleague correctly notes, see ante, p 113, the First Amendment requires a defamation plaintiff, at least in a case involving speech of public concern, to bear the burden of proving falsity. See Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc v Hepps, 475 US 767; 106 S Ct 1558; 89 L Ed 2d 783 (1986). It does not follow, however, from the fact that constitutional principles require a certain party to bear a certain burden of proof on a certain issue at trial, that an appellate court must or should independently review the merits of the issue. For example, in a criminal case the government is constitutionally required to bear the burden of proving the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Failure to so instruct the jury is grounds for reversal. See In re Winship, 397 US 358; 90 S Ct 1068; 25 L Ed 2d 368 (1970). But if the jury is properly so instructed and finds the defendant guilty, constitutional principles have never been thought to require appellate courts to independently review the underlying factual issue of guilt, and thereby substitute their judgment de novo for that of the jury. Rather, appellate courts apply the well-established "sufficiency of the evidence” standard, construing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and asking only whether a rational jury could properly have reached that verdict. See Jackson v Virginia, 443 US 307, 318-319; 99 S Ct 2781; 61 L Ed 2d 560 (1979); Glasser v United States, 315 US 60, 80; 62 S Ct 457; 86 L Ed 680 (1942); People v Hampton, 407 Mich 354; 285 NW2d 284 (1979). A similarly deferential standard *136of appellate review has traditionally been applied to jury verdicts in civil cases. See Kupkowski v Avis Ford, Inc, 395 Mich 155, 167-168; 235 NW2d 324 (1975); Dodd v Secretary of State, 390 Mich 606, 612; 213 NW2d 109 (1973).
My colleague would analogize the issue of falsity to the "constitutional fact” issue of "actual malice” in a defamation case, over which appellate courts are constitutionally required to exercise independent review. See, e.g., Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc v Connaughton, 491 US 657; 109 S Ct 2678; 105 L Ed 2d 562 (1989); Bose Corp v Consumers Union of United States, Inc, 466 US 485; 104 S Ct 1949; 80 L Ed 2d 502 (1984). Another classic example of a constitutional fact question subject to independent appellate review is the voluntariness of a confession. See, e.g., Arizona v Fulminante, 499 US —; 111 S Ct 1246; 113 L Ed 2d 302 (1991). Actual malice and the voluntariness of a confession, however, are mixed questions of fact and law. Falsity, by contrast, would appear to be a classic issue of pure historical fact. Indeed, with regard to subsidiary factual questions underlying the ultimate issue of actual malice, the Court in Harte-Hanks strongly suggested — and four concurring justices made explicitly clear — that the appellate court need not independently review "the historical facts — e.g., who did what to whom and when . . . .” 491 US 694 (White, J., joined by Rehnquist, C.J., concurring); see also id. at 688 (opinion of the Court); id. at 697-699 (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment); id. at 696 (Kennedy, J., concurring) (indicating agreement with Justice Scalia’s analysis).2
*137Not only does it seem clear that the United States Supreme Court is not inclined to find an independent review standard constitutionally required with regard to the issue of falsity, but this Court’s own precedents have consistently viewed the determination of truth or falsity in defamation cases as a purely factual question which should generally be left to the jury. See Steadman v Lapensohn, 408 Mich 50, 53-54; 288 NW2d 580 (1980); Cochrane v Wittbold, 359 Mich 402, 408; 102 NW2d 459 (1960).3
Hepps, of course, has left unsettled the question whether falsity may be proved merely by a preponderance of the evidence, or whether some higher burden (such as "clear and convincing evidence”) is constitutionally required.4 For reasons elaborated below, however, I believe this case can properly be resolved without any further inquiry into the precise scope of either appellate review of falsity or the constitutional burden of proving falsity at trial. I would simply conclude that there is no proper need or basis in this case to adopt the standard of independent appellate review urged by my colleague.
*138II. DEFAMATION ON THE BASIS OF IMPLICATIONS FROM TRUE FACTS
I find it useful to begin by noting the issues which the parties do not raise on this appeal. Most significantly, plaintiffs have conceded the truth— or at least that they are unable to prove the material falsity — of all the speciñc factual statements contained in the four disputed articles. Plaintiffs’ claim, in a nutshell, is that the articles, taken as a whole, nevertheless conveyed to the average reader certain vague, overall "implications” which plaintiffs claim to be false. These alleged implications, as defined by plaintiffs themselves, boil down to the proposition that plaintiffs "are Mafia.”5 Defendants, for their part, do not challenge the jury verdict on the ground that plaintiffs failed to prove the requisite degree of fault, nor do they challenge the finding that plaintiffs are private rather than public figures. Defendants’ defense is essentially one of truth. Defendants both deny that the implications of which plaintiffs complain can fairly be said to arise from the articles, and contend in any event that, given the conceded truth of the specific factual statements, any overall implications which do arguably arise therefrom are necessarily privileged as "implications from true facts.”
*139Plaintiffs’ claim is thus vastly different from the more typical or familiar "defamatory implication” claim. Plaintiffs do not allege that any particular factual statement by defendants is reasonably susceptible of conveying a specific factual implication which is provably false. Nor do they contend that defendants, by selectively omitting crucial relevant facts, have conveyed any misleading factual implication on the basis of otherwise true statements. Rather, they contend that a collection of conced-edly true factual statements amounts to false defamation because of the inferential or speculative conclusions that the average reader might draw from the totality of those statements. Thus, while it is undoubtedly true, as a general matter, that defamatory implications may be potentially actionable if provably false, the case law cited by plaintiffs reiterating that familiar principle is ultimately inapposite and unhelpful.
I believe the issue in this case, properly framed, is best analyzed by recourse to those cases which have addressed the somewhat elusive problem of "defamation by implications from true facts.” While this difficult area of defamation law has not yet been fully explored — and I have no pretensions that this Court can or should presume to offer any definitive solutions today — a number of cases have set forth useful and persuasive analyses of the issue. Perhaps the leading case is Strada v Connecticut Newspapers, Inc, 193 Conn 313, 323; 477 A2d 1005 (1984), where "the plaintiff [sought] to recover from a publication where all the underlying and stated facts [were] proved to be true, or substantially true, claiming that the 'slant’ of the article [gave] rise to allegedly false and defamatory implications.” In a thoughtful and carefully analyzed opinion, the Connecticut Supreme Court concluded that "[t]he goal of nurturing a free and *140active press in the political arena mandates denial of recovery by a public figure where the allegation of defamation 'depends fundamentally on an interpretation of various aspects of the broadcast, not on anything directly said in it.’ ” Id.
When any inference or innuendo does not arise from the omission of material facts, but rather from the editorial choice of layout, the plaintiff may not recover for libel by innuendo. The media would be unduly burdened if, in addition to reporting facts about public officers and public affairs correctly, it had to be vigilant for any possibly defamatory implication arising from the report of those true facts. [Id. at 326.]
It is true that Strada involved the alleged defamation of a public figure, and the court suggested at some point that its rule should be limited to that category of cases. I believe, however, that the gist of Strada’s reasoning, if not necessarily its precise contours, properly applies to this case, which, although involving private-figure plaintiffs, involves speech of public concern.6
I find highly instructive the reasoning of Woods v Evansville Press Co, Inc, 791 F2d 480 (CA 7, 1986). The court in Woods, while conceding that implied defamatory statements may be actionable, and even assuming for purposes of analysis that the article there at issue could reasonably be read to contain the "defamatory implications” ascribed to it by the plaintiff in that case, see id. at 486, held that
requiring a publisher to guarantee the truth of all the inferences a reader might reasonably draw *141from a publication would undermine the uninhibited, open discussion of matters of public concern. A publisher reporting on matters of general or public interest cannot be charged with the intolerable burden of guessing what inferences a jury-might draw from an article and ruling out all possible false and defamatory innuendoes that could be drawn from the article. [Id. at 487-488.]
The court in Strada cited a case also discussed by my Brother Brickley, Memphis Publishing Co v Nichols, 569 SW2d 412 (Tenn, 1978), which addressed a claim of defamation by implication from true facts. See ante, pp 124-126. I agree with my colleague that Nichols does not support plaintiffs’ claim in this case. Indeed, I think the differences between the claims in Nichols and this case are very illustrative. The plaintiff in Nichols was a gunshot victim who alleged that she was falsely defamed by an article describing the shooting, which occurred at the victim’s home. The female assailant’s husband was present in the victim’s home at the time of the shooting, and he was also fired upon. The defendant newspaper published those facts, which were true as far as they went, but failed to report that the victim’s own husband, as well as two other neighbors, were also present at the time, and that the group was simply conversing in the living room. By omitting those crucial relevant facts, the article, while technically true, directly and misleadingly implied that the victim and the. assailant’s husband were caught in an illicit, adulterous relationship. See id. at 414, 419. As the court held:
The proper question is whether the meaning reasonably conveyed by the published words is defamatory .... The publication of the complete facts could not conceivably have led the reader to *142conclude that [the plaintiff] and [the assailant’s husband] had an adulterous relationship. The published statement, therefore, so distorted the truth as to make the entire article false and defamatory. [Id. at 420. Emphasis in original.]
In this case, by contrast, there is no claim that defendants, by omitting crucial relevant facts, conveyed any skewed or misleading implications. The implications of which plaintiffs complain are simply the ordinary and natural implications that might be expected to flow from the specific factual statements published by defendants, whether taken separately or together. While many of those statements were undoubtedly defamatory, in that they had a tendency to injure the reputations of plaintiffs, they were also concededly true. While the "overall implications” allegedly conveyed by the articles as a whole may also have been defamatory, their thrust was not misleading or different in kind from that of the concededly true specific statements. Rather, the implications, if any, simply reflected the accumulated thrust of the conced-edly true stated facts. It logically follows that such implications — even if not themselves capable of being either verified or disproven — would necessarily be protected by the same defense of truth shielding the specific factual statements. This is simply not a case, like Nichols, where the separate factual ingredients of the publication add up to more than the sum of their parts, to the extent that a collection of true facts, by the omission of crucial associated facts, ends up conveying an actionably false implication. True facts, whatever their "implications,” cannot become actionable simply because they are collected and published together in a straightforward manner.7
*143It is significant that plaintiffs, while conceding the truth of all the specific, concrete factual statements in the disputed articles, define the allegedly false "implications” in exceedingly broad and vague terms. Plaintiffs have been unable to define those implications any more specifically than in terms of the vague and perhaps undefinable proposition that they "are Mafia.” Yet, while they strenuously assert the general falsity of that proposition, they have not disputed the essential truth of all of defendants’ concrete assertions regarding their specific activities and financial ties to commonly-reputed organized-crime figures.8 Plaintiffs have conceded that they appear on the lists of organized-crime suspects maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Indeed, plaintiff Lo-cricchio conceded, in an interview before the disputed articles were even published, that rumors of plaintiffs’ ties to organized crime and investigations of them by numerous law enforcement agencies had already become so persistent that he feared his own mother might suspect him.
None of this, of course, necessarily establishes *144that plaintiffs "are Mafia” — however that elusive concept may be defined. I would not presume to speculate, and this Court need not decide, whether plaintiffs "are Mafia.” It is noteworthy that defendant reporter Michael Wendland stated at trial his belief — which he believed to be consistent with the content and thrust of the disputed articles — that plaintiffs themselves were not directly involved in organized crime, although he believed that organized-crime figures were indirectly involved in financing the Pine Knob development. It is to be hoped, of course, that the average, fair-minded reader would stick to the concededly true facts as presented in the disputed articles, and avoid leaping to speculative or unwarranted conclusions about plaintiffs. But it simply acknowledges human nature to observe that there is no way to guarantee or control what any reader may infer, speculate, or conclude on the basis of facts of which he is made aware.
For purposes of this case, it is enough to conclude, as a matter of law, that a defamation defendant cannot be held liable for the reader’s possible inferences, speculations, or conclusions, where the defendant has not made or directly implied any provably false factual assertion, and has not, by selective omission of crucial relevant facts, misleadingly conveyed any false factual implication. In sum, the overall implications that may flow from true factual statements straightforwardly presented are ordinarily as privileged for defamation purposes as the statements themselves. Any other conclusion, in my view, would unacceptably inhibit the free reporting of news and information of public concern.9
*145III. CONCLUSION
This Court’s concern for the freedom to report opinions and truthful information about people is longstanding. In the very first volume of our Reports, we noted that "[i]n this country, and particularly in this western country, great latitude has been allowed to individuals in speaking and writing 'of and concerning’ private and public characters . . . .” People v Jerome, 1 Mich 142, 144 (1848). In line with this historic concern, and for the reasons detailed above, I agree that the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be reversed, and that the directed verdict in favor of defendants must be reinstated.

 The circuit court denied defendants’ second motion for summary judgment in 1982, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. We did not approve that decision, but simply denied interlocutory leave to appeal. 419 Mich 860 (1984). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. 469 US 1018 (1984). With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, this Court, in my view, should have granted leave to appeal in 1984 and should have reversed the Court of Appeals decision at that time.

 Even while reaffirming independent appellate review in the actual malice context, the Court in Harte-Hanks noted that underlying factual questions like "credibility determinations” are not independently reviewed. See id. at 688. Justice Brickley himself suggests *137that his independent review standard would not extend to "credibility determinations.” Ante, p 112, n 17. Yet the factual issue of falsity will frequently amount to no more and no less than a credibility contest between witnesses at trial. Thus, if Justice Brickley’s independent review standard with regard to falsity is to have any real meaning, it would necessarily have to apply even to credibility issues, a province traditionally reserved most jealously for the jury as trier of fact.

 This is not to suggest, in light of free speech concerns, that a jury’s finding with regard to falsity should be immune from any effective appellate scrutiny. For reasons elaborated below, I do not think we need to address in this case whether, for example, appellate review of falsity should be limited to the extremely lenient "sufficiency of the evidence” standard traditionally used to review civil jury verdicts, or whether a more searching standard (such as "clearly erroneous” review) should be employed.

 See Hepps at 779, n 4 ("[w]e . . . have no occasion to consider the quantity of proof of falsity that a private-figure plaintiff must present”).

 As Justice Brickley notes, plaintiffs, toward the very beginning of this litigation, responded to defendants’ interrogatories by stating that
the defamation allegations . . . are not necessarily based on a false statement(s) in any. one particular article, but rather, that the entire series of articles, in their entirety, injured the reputations of plaintiffs as the same represented a false portrayal, implication, imputation and/or insinuation that plaintiffs, among other things, are or were members and/or associates of an organized criminal society, otherwise known as the "Mafia” ....

 The issue of possible organized-crime involvement in a major business and entertainment development is certainly of public concern.

 I agree with my Brother Brickley that the one potentially *143troublesome aspect of the disputed articles is the caption of the photograph in the second article regarding the discovery of Harvey Leach’s body in the trunk of his car. See ante, pp 131-132. The caption itself fails to note the important facts that the body was discovered in 1974, five years before the articles were published, and that plaintiffs were never implicated in the murder. I also agree, however, that this isolated defect, for which defendant reporter Michael Wendland indicated regret at trial, is not enough to support plaintiffs’ claim. The caption, taken by itself, does not refer to either plaintiff, and conveys little comprehensible information at all without the background and context provided by the text of the second article. That text accurately, and with reasonable completeness, describes the known facts associated with Leach’s murder, including the fact that intensive investigations by numerous law enforcement agencies never found any connection between plaintiffs and Leach’s murder.

 As the circuit court noted in granting defendants’ motion for directed verdict, it is essentially undisputed that "[p]laintiffs were personal friends of, or had done business with, innumerable individuals whose names are commonly associated with organized crime . . .

 My Brother Levin would permit recovery against defendants for publishing concededly true facts, simply because those facts inevitably convey unflattering overall implications about plaintiffs. He does not *145explain how his analysis takes account of the unique and troublesome issues raised in the area of implications from true facts.
I agree with my colleague, of course, that the mere rephrasing of a statement into the form of a question, whether "Is it Mafia?” or "Is he a womanizer?” cannot immunize the statement. But my colleague overlooks the plethora of concededly true facts in the disputed articles which rendered the provocative headline question a reasonable comment on those facts.