Court Opinion

ID: 9638421
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:43:31.341552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:05.171318
License: Public Domain

On Petition by Appellant for Rehearing.
SWAN, Circuit Judge.
The petition for rehearing asserts (1) that the petitioner has never been heard on the issues which this court’s opinion held to be decisive of the appeal; (2) that the court erred in disregarding the New York “single publication” rule and selecting the law of Virginia as controlling; and (3) that we misinterpreted the law of Virginia.
*905At the court’s request the respondent filed an answering brief to the petition for rehearing and the petitioner filed a reply brief to the respondent’s answering brief. Consequently the issues have been fully presented on briefs. We think it Unnecessary to grant oral argument.
Our decision held that, since it did not appear that the plaintiff was known outside Virginia or suffered any damages except in that state, it was correct for the judge to make rulings as to the admission of evidence bearing on damages in accordance with the law -of Virginia. The petitioner contends that our decision runs counter to the “single publication” rule which New York has adopted with respect to defamation contained in newspapers, magazines and books. The authoritative exposition of -this rule is to be found in Gregoire v. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 298 N.Y. 119, 81 N.E.2d 45. At page 123 of 298 N.Y., at page 47 of 81 N.E.2d the opinion recognizes the common law rule that each delivery to a third person of a defamatory article constituted a new publication which gave rise to a new cause of action, notes that the rule had its origin in an era antedating the modern process of mass publication and nationwide circulation, and proceeds:
“That rule also gave scant heed to the public policy which underlies statutes of limitation, long regarded as ‘statutes of repose’ designed to outlaw stale claims. * * * within recent years courts of this State and other jurisdictions have ruled that the publication of a defamatory statement in a single issue of a newspaper * * * is, in legal effect, one publication which gives rise to one cause of action and that the applicable Statute of Limitation runs from the date of that publication.”
The question for decision was whether the plaintiff’s action, which was based on libelous matter in a book published by the defendant, was barred by the New York statute of limitations. A copy of the book was sold in New York within the statutory period but the initial publication of the book long antedated such period. The precise decision was that the statute began to run from the date of the initial publication. Other cases cited in that opinion at page 123 of 198 N.Y. at page 47 of 81 N.E.2d have likewise applied the “single publication” concept in conjunction with the New York statute of limitations to bar recovery for libels initially published here and distributed later either here or in other states or countries. Compare Hartmann v. Time, Inc., 3 Cir., 166 F.2d 127, certiorari denied 334 U.S. 838, 68 S.Ct. 1495, 92 L.Ed. 1763. The rule is well characterized in 48 Col. L. Rev. 932, at 935 where it is said that the single publication rule has been evolved as a practical means of protecting the forum against the multiplicity of suits and indefinite tolling of the statute of limitations which results from the application of the early common law rule of multiple publication to modern methods of mass distribution. No case has come to our attention which indicates that a court of New York, whose law is concededly binding upon the federal court when jurisdiction rests on diverse citizenship, would not apply the law of Virginia with respect to damages recoverable in a libel action under circumstances like those at bar. As noted in our former opinion the single publication concept may be the only workable procedure when a plaintiff suffers damages in several states whose laws provide different measures of damages, but that problem is not here presented since the plaintiff’s reputation was damaged only in Virginia. The court adheres to the view that Virginia law applies in such a case.
The petitioner’s brief has not convinced us that we misinterpreted the Virginia law. Nor do we see reason for adding to our previous discussion of it.
Accordingly we adhere to our opinion and deny the petition for rehearing.