Court Opinion

ID: 9669242
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:45:29.42742+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:54.361382
License: Public Domain

*887HAMILTON, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
In my opinion the article published in the Denton Record Chronicle, October 11, 1967, would convey to the public the impression that it was a report of the proceedings at the Denton City Council meeting on the evening of October 10, just as much so had the article been headed “A Report,” or “An Account of Proceedings” at said meeting. There is nothing in the article to indicate or suggest that the alleged libelous statement was not part of the report or account of what happened at the meeting. I would say that there is no issue of fact raised as to how the statement would have been interpreted by the ordinary reader.
I likewise disagree with the majority in its holding that an issue of fact was raised as to what was said at the meeting concerning the developer being bankrupt. As said in the majority opinion, some of the witnesses testified without qualification that they heard statements to the effect that the developer had gone bankrupt, and that D. B. Boyd had gone bankrupt. There was one witness who testified that if anyone stated during the meeting that the developer of Sequoia Park was bankrupt he did not hear it. This is not evidence that the statement was not made that the developer was bankrupt and does not raise a fact issue on that question. The reporter himself testified that “No one ever mentioned Mr. Boyd’s name, they always said the ‘developer’ bankrupt.”' If everything quoted in the alleged libelous statement was said at the meeting except the name of the developer, and if it is undisputed that the name of the developer of the Sequoia Parks Subdivision is D. B. Boyd, it is difficult to see how that true statement could turn an otherwise privileged statement into one not privileged.
I agree with the original opinion of this Court holding that the alleged libelous statement was privileged under Sections 2 and 3 of Art. 5432 Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes, and would reverse the judgments below and render judgment for petitioner.