Court Opinion

ID: 9687446
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:28:22.854984+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:27.447584
License: Public Domain

Brennan, J.
{dissenting). This case comes to us as a result of a judgment rendered by the trial court on motion for summary judgment pursuant to GCR 1963, 117. GCR 1963, 117.2(3) provides that a motion for summary judgment may be made on the ground “that except as to the amount of damages there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, and the moving party is therefore entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” GCR 1963, 117.3 provides, among other things, that “Judgment shall be rendered forthwith if * * * the affidavits or other proof show that there is no genuine issue of fact.”
The first matter which we consider in connection with this ruling is whether the affidavit supporting the motion for summary judgment is sufficient. GCR 1963, 117.3 says that a motion based upon subrule 117.2(3) shall be supported by affidavits. GCR 1963, 117.3 further says that such affidavits shall be governed by the provisions of subrules 116.4, 116.5, and-116.6. GCR 1963, 116.4 requires a supporting affidavit to be made on personal knowl*515edge and to set forth, with, particularity such facts as would he admissible in evidence to establish or deny the allegation in the pleadings. Such affidavits should show affirmatively that the affiant if sworn as a witness can testify competently to the facts contained therein. The affidavit in the instant case supporting the motion for summary judgment is filed by Buell Doelle, the attorney for the defendant. It does not set forth with particularity facts which would be admissible in evidence to establish or deny the grounds stated in the motion nor does it show affirmatively that Mr. Doelle, if sworn as a witness, could testify competently to the facts contained therein. Plaintiff’s answer to the motion was likewise supported only by the affidavit of his counsel, and neither party has raised any issue in this appeal as to the sufficiency of the affidavits.
GCR 1963,117.3 says that such affidavits, together with the pleadings, depositions, admissions, and documentary evidence then filed in the action or submitted by the parties, shall be considered by the court at the hearing on the motion. The purpose of the affidavits required by GCR 1963, 116.4 is to present to the court the nature of the evidence that would be brought out at trial in order to demonstrate whether there are genuine issues of fact to be tried. Where the pleadings, depositions, admissions, and documentary evidence then on file in the action are sufficient to satisfy the trial judge that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, the moving party ought not to be required to comply strictly with the requirements of GCR 1963, 116.4 in the affidavit which supports his motion.
The second question presented is this: On what was the motion for summary judgment based? That is to say, what were the pleadings, depositions, admissions, and documentary evidence which the trial judge could consider in arriving at his decision on *516the motion for summary judgment? There is no quarrel as to what pleadings were then before the court. But in this case, there was an abortive trial to a jury. It began on Tuesday, June 11, 1963, and ended on Thursday, July 20, 1963, when the attorney for the plaintiff made a motion for mistrial which was granted by the court. In his motion for entry of. summary judgment, defendant says as follows: “that the pleadings heretofore filed in the above action, as well as the earlier and nearly completed trial of the cause on the merits before this court and a jury, disclose that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact.” Both the trial judge in his opinion on the motion for summary judgment and the Court of Appeals in the opinion reported in 2 Mich App 74 make reference to the partially completed trial. Substantial excerpts from the partially completed trial are contained in the record presented on appeal in this Court, including excerpts from the testimony of Robert A. Benyi, an employee of the defendant, Henry C. Rogers, an employee of the defendant, Joanne Sirgany, a friend of the plaintiff, James Shiavone, an employee of the defendant, Helen Ring, a friend of the plaintiff, and Mrs. Franz Weeren, the wife of the plaintiff. In addition thereto, the record on appeal in this case contains the transcript of over a hundred pages of testimony on direct and cross-examination by Franz J. Weeren, the plaintiff in this ease. Further, the record contains one exhibit of the defendant and two exhibits of the plaintiff. As will be seen later in this opinion both the trial court and the appellate court made reference to many things contained in the testimony and observable from the exhibits. It should be stated that in addition to the exhibits printed in the record in this case, this Court has viewed the film which is the focal point of the controversy between parties. The film was viewed' also by both *517the trial court and the appellate court. This partially completed trial contains “admissions and documentary evidence then on file in the action or submitted by the parties” which were properly considered hy the trial court in deciding whether there are any genuine issues of disputed fact.
We can see no distinction between admissions made by the plaintiff in a pretrial discovery deposition and admissions made by him from the witness stand in the presence of the court and the jury. If his admissions disclose that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, in either case, the court ought to be allowed to act upon that disclosure. We see no distinction between exhibits attached to an affidavit given pursuant to GCR 1963, 116.4 and exhibits which have been marked and filed and identified and admitted to evidence in the process of a partially completed trial. All of these things must clearly be considered as having been submitted by the parties, in compliance with the court rule. Neither plaintiff’s counsel nor defendant’s counsel urged that this Court should close its eyes to the matters which were contained in the record in this case and confine itself to a consideration of the pleadings and the abbreviated affidavits in support of and in opposition to the motion, or pick and choose among the items of documentary evidence that were submitted to the trial court and considered by it in ruling on the motion. We hold, therefore, that the phrase in GCR. 1963, 117.3, “depositions, admissions, and documentary evidence then filed in the action or submitted by the parties,” may include testimony given in a partially completed trial before the same judge who hears the motion for summary judgment, and these things may be considered by the trial judge where the parties treat the partially completed trial as supporting their respective positions on the motion.
*518Having thus assumed the task of examining the récord in this case with particularity, we must now tell the story of Franz J. Weeren against the Evening News Association as it can be gleaned from the words of Mr. Weeren himself and the uncontroverted exhibits, documents, and pleadings in the cause. Franz J. Weeren was 41 years of age in June of 1963 when he took the stand in the trial of this case. He was born in Berlin, Germany. His father’s name was Doctor Fritz Weeren; his grandfather was called Franz Weeren. His grandfather had established an ironworks in Berlin in October, 1887. Upon the grandfather’s death in 1936, plaintiff’s father, Doctor Fritz Weeren, became the owner of the family business, known as the Eisenwerks Franz Weeren, -which manufactured iron bells. Plaintiff served in the German army during the Second World War, and after the war, upon completing his education, went to work for his father in the ironworks as its general manager. His father, Doctor Fritz Weeren, was still active in the business, and both plaintiff and his father lived in a home built on the premises of the ironworks. In December of 1952, a workman in the foundry brought to the plaintiff a copy of a news article which had appeared in the Morgenpost on the 7th of December, 1952. The newspaper article told the story of one, Dr. von Scorebrand, who had come from a leper colony in Okinawa and was in Berlin looking for a bell. Plaintiff took the article to his father, discussed the matter with his father, and one of them directed a Mr. Eising, their office clerk, to call Dr. von Scorebrand regarding his efforts to obtain a bell. Dr. von Scorebrand came to the plant with a newspaper reporter 2 or 3 days later. Both Mr. Weeren and his father discussed with Dr. von Scorebrand the possibility of giving him a bell, Dr. von Scorebrand *519was a guest in the Weeren home and there were numerous conversations regarding the hell had between them. Dr. von Scorebrand was offered, free of any charge, any bell he selected to choose from the factory ground. In due course of time, a bell weighing approximately 2,700 or 2,800 pounds was constructed at the iron works. There was some controversy at the trial as to whether the employees who worked on the bell were paid for their efforts. It must be assumed on motion for summary judgment and on this appeal that they were paid, as claimed by plaintiff, Mr. Weeren.
After the bell was cast, it was donated to Dr. von Scorebrand in a ceremony which took place around the airlift memorial in Berlin. Present were the acting mayor of Berlin, Protestant and Catholic clergymen and a Rabbi. The plaintiff was present, but did not participate in the ceremony, and his father, who was ill, was not present. Newspaper men and representatives of the wire services were present at this ceremony, and newsmen had been present at a previous test ringing of the bell, which was conducted at the factory itself. Newspaper articles regarding the donation of the bell to the leper colony by the Weeren Iron Works, appeared at the time. Some three years later, there appeared in a German Lutheran publication called Christ Und Welt an article by a man named Bruce Bliven, Jr. This article purported to tell the story of the donation of the bell by the ironworks to the leper colony. The article appeared on the 7th of April, 1955, and it was marked and received as an exhibit at the trial.
Plaintiff testified that when the article was published he discussed it with his father and his mother, that they agreed there were inaccuracies in the Bliven story, but that it was not malicious. Plain*520tiff testified that there was nothing defaming in the Christ Und Welt article, although he stated that the story was inaccurate in that it portrayed the workers offering to volunteer their work free of cost, which was not so. He further indicated that the story was inaccurate because it gave the impression that the people of Berlin wanted to donate the bell out of thanksgiving for the American airlift. He said further that the particular inaccuracy with reference to the workers offering their wages' did not bother him. He stated that a truck driver, who had transported the bell, was inaccurately called Max in the article when his real name was Karl. He testified that there was another inaccuracy in the article in that it had stated that the bell was smeared with a dirty substance to make it appear as though it were an old and worthless bell. And though he conceded that a grease-like covering was placed on the bell, plaintiff testified that this was a protective measure and was not done for the purpose of making the bell appear old or worthless. Weeren described this spraying or smearing inaccuracy as “kind of funny.” Another error in the Christ Und Welt article which Mr. Weeren described in his cross- . examination, was that it described his father as Dr. Franz Weeren, when in fact his father’s name was Dr. Fritz Weeren. Upon later viewing the exhibit, Mr. Weeren conceded that the Christ Und Welt article did not describe his father as Dr. Franz Weeren but merely as Dr. Weeren. The plaintiff described the Christ Und Welt article from the witness stand as being a very flowery and nice story. The plaintiff reiterated that the Christ Und Welt article was not malicious, and that neither he nor his father took any action to correct the inaccuracies they had seen in it.
*521Iii August of 1955, the Readers Digest published a story entitled “A Bell for Okinawa,” which was condensed from the Christ Und Welt article by Bruce Bliven, Jr. Notice was given in the Readers Digest article, giving copyright credit to Christ Und Welt of April 7, 1955. Mr. Weeren testified that he did not make a word-for-word comparison between the Readers Digest article and the Christ Und Welt article since the former was based upon the latter. Mr. Weeren testified that he discussed the Berman edition of the Readers Digest story with his father,' that they concluded that there were inaccuracies in the Readers Digest story but they were almost identical to the inaccuracies appearing in the previous Christ Und Welt story. The Readers Digest article was marked and received as an exhibit at the trial, and it was called to the plaintiff’s attention that the Readers Digest article made reference to a Dr. Franz Weeren, whom the article described as the owner of the ironworks. When asked whether he was disturbed by this, Mr. Weeren replied that there “seems to be a slight inaccuracy here.” Referring to the Readers Digest article, the plaintiff again pointed out inaccuracies, indicating that while the Readers Digest article stated that the phone call to Dr. von Seorebrand was made by Dr. Franz Weeren, owner of the iron works, the phone call was in fact made by Mr. Eising, the clerk in the office. The Readers Digest article repeated the erroneous report of an offer of free labor being made by the workmen. Plaintiff testified that the Readers Digest article inaccurately attributed to Dr. von Seorebrand the inspiration to name the bell the Zuversicht, that is, the Confidence Bell. The plaintiff testified that the naming of the bell was his own inspiration. He pointed out further that the Readers Digest article described the lettering on the bell as bas-relief when. *522in fact it was in Gothic lettering. The article inaccurately quoted Dr. Weeren as having said it was risky to get a bell from Berlin to Hamburg, when in fact it was not risky and no such statement had ever been made. Again, plaintiff pointed out that the truck driver was erroneously called Max instead of Karl, and the protective greasy covering put on the bell was again inaccurately reported as having been designed to make the bell appear old and worthless. Mr. Weeren reiterated that no action was taken by him or by his father with reference to the Readers Digest article, or the Christ TJnd Welt article, and for the third time stated that there was nothing malicious in the articles.
On April 20, 1958, the defendant, Evening News Association, through its television station WWJ-TV, Channel 4, in Detroit, Michigan, televised an hour-long dramatic presentation entitled “A Bell for Okinawa” on a television program called the Readers Digest Hour. The film was made by Bernard L. Schubert, Inc., and was leased to the defendant for two showings by Telestar Films, Inc. By this time, the plaintiff, Franz J. Weeren, was living in Oak Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. In his amended complaint, the plaintiff stated that the film as produced and telecast by the defendant used plaintiff’s name and identified him with the ironworks and falsely characterized and portrayed him by name as an arrogant unfeeling person, and as possessing a character universally associated with the Hitler Nazi party. He further alleged that the film as telecast asserted that plaintiff was approached by Dr. von Scorebrand to donate a bell, but in a rude and violent manner he had refused to grant the request until compelled by his employees to do so, and then only without paying his employees for the work done, all of which was untrue, He further *523alleged that the film as telecast implied and asserted that the plaintiff was an experienced smuggler, and conspired with others to smuggle the bell to Hamburg in violation of international treaties and agreements, all of which was untrue. Plaintiff further stated in his amended complaint, that he immediately, through his attorneys, caused a letter to be sent to the defendant requesting that- defendant cease and desist from further distribution and telecast of said film, and advising the defendant that said film was false and defamatory and an invasion of his right to privacy. The original letter is included as an exhibit in the record of this case, and it states as follows:
“ALLEN, HAASS AND SELANDER
Attorneys and Counselors
Dime Building
Detroit 26
May 7, 1958.
“Evening News Association,
615 Lafayette Building,
Detroit 26, Michigan.

“Gentlemen:

“The writer and Jack Moskowitz, attorney, at law,of Hazel Park, Michigan, have been retained 'by Franz J. Weeren in connection with your recent television broadcast ‘A Bell for Okinawa’ on station WWJ-TV. The characterization of Mr. Weeren and. representation of his actions and conduct are re-' garded as false, defamatory and an invasion of his right of privacy. Mr. Weeren and his family have already suffered severe damages as a result of the telecast for which you and others will be required to respond.
“The purpose of this letter is to inform you -of Mr. Weeren’s position and to request that you refrain from any retelecast- or other action which *524would further damage Mr. Weeren, his family and business.
“Yours very truly,
“Allen, Haass and Selander

“/&/ James C. Allen

“JCA/eab”
Plaintiff further alleged in his amended complaint, that notwithstanding receipt by defendant of this letter, defendant did again recklessly and without the knowledge and consent of the plaintiff telecast said film on or about September 2, 1958.
, Defendant concedes receipt of the letter and concedes that there was a further telecast of the film on or about September 2, 1958. The trial judge who viewed the film on two occasions has this to say about it:
“First, it is my finding that the film, ‘A Bell for Okinawa,’ is not defamatory as a matter of law of any of the characters it depicts. About this conclusion, in my opinion, the minds of reasonable persons would not disagree. I should remark here that in the published articles and the film there is an obvious confusion of names occurring, probably in the translation from German to English. Plaintiff’s father is Dr. Fritz Weeren. ITis grandfather, founder, was Franz Weeren. The foundry is known as the Franz Weeren Iron Works or Eisenwerk Franz Weeren. Plaintiff was never known as Dr. Franz Weeren. He entered the United States in September, 1956, under the name of Franz J. Weeren.
“Consideration of the film if the pleading of the plaintiff is to be followed suggests that the public will asume that he is the portly, middle-aged German portrayed as Dr. Franz Weeren, rather than the slim, youthful-looking person who was shown to this court in pictures exhibited at the trial, but there is nothing defamatory about portliness or middle-aged which the film portrayal of Dr. Franz Weeren depicted, There was certainly nothing to suggest *525Nazi characteristics. He was both a person and an ancestor of whom one conld be proud.
“This court, therefore, is of the opinion, and it so finds that the criticism of the film as pleaded and voiced by plaintiff’s counsel at the time of oral argument is of a hypercritical, supersensitive nature and not such as would he remotely objectionable to an ordinary reasonable person.”
This Court has viewed the film and agrees with the trial court’s description of it.
No one could doubt that a television broadcaster is not the insurer of the truth of every quasi-historical dramatic presentation it broadcasts, and there is clearly a privilege extended a television broadcaster which will shield it from civil liability for libel in the absence of a positive showing of both falsity and malice in the publication.
The only possible question of fact we can see on this issue of libel is whether the Evening News Association, having received the letter described above, as exhibit 2, was obligated to investigate the truth of the representations made in the film before rebroadcasting it. If the letter of May 7, 1958, sought to accomplish that purpose, it falls short of the mark. The letter does not even indicate to the Evening News Association that the Mr. Weeren, whom the lawyers represented, was or claimed to he in any way connected with the Eisenwerk Franz Weeren described in the film. There are no details in the letter indicating in what particulars the film is alleged to he false or defamatory. All the defendant could possibly have been expected to do under the circumstances was to view the film again and arrive at some reasonable conclusion as to whether it was false and defamatory on its face. This they did, and apparently arrived at the same conclusion as the trial judge that the film would not be remotely objectionable to an ordinary reasonable person.
*526And finally, we must consider whether the facts here present a case in which a suit for civil damages should lie for invasion of the plaintiff’s privacy. Concluding as we do, that the film was not defamatory per se and that the inaccuracies contained therein were those which could be legitimately countenanced as part of the artistic license involved in the presentation of a dramatic work, does plaintiff have some property right in this event in which he participated, or some property right in his own participation in the event which precludes its broadcast for profit and entertainment without his permission? Without discussing the legal precedents on this point, the instant case can be clearly distinguished from those cases in which recovery has been permitted for invasion of the right of privacy.
The Franz Weeren Iron Works was in the business of making bells. It donated a bell to a leper colony in Okinawa, and it obtained the benefit of considerable publicity in connection with that act of charity. Public relations and institutional publicity for business establishments are as common and accepted in our day as any other fact of modern life. Neither a company nor the owner of a company nor the son of an owner of a company ought to be permitted to complain if publicity sought and obtained creates more than a ripple on the waters of public notice. From the minute a newspaper man walked in the front door of the ironworks in the company of Dr. von Scorebrand and the story of the donation of the bell voluntarily released to him, the entire story and the participation of the plaintiff in it became part of the public domain. Repetition of the story in other news media, condensations of it, retellings of it, dramatizations of it were the expected and desired result, and it ill behooves the *527plaintiff to demand seclusion and anonymity at this late date.
The judgment of the trial court should he affirmed, with costs to defendant.
Dethmers, C. J., and O’Hara, J., concurred with Brennan, J.
Kelly, J., did not sit.