Hill v. Hayes

Decision Date15 April 1965
Citation207 N.E.2d 604,260 N.Y.S.2d 7,15 N.Y.2d 986
Parties, 207 N.E.2d 604 James J. HILL, Respondent, v. Joseph HAYES et al., Defendants, and Time, Inc., Appellant.
CourtNew York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Appeal from Supreme Court, Special and Trial Term, New York County.

Action was brought for damages for violation of plaintiffs' right of privacy under Section 51 of the Civil Rights Law providing that any person whose name, portrait, or picture is used in the state for advertising purposes or for purposes of trade without written consent first obtained may maintain equitable action to prevent and restrain use thereof and may also sue and recover damages for any injuries sustained. The plaintiffs and their children were held captive in their home on September 11, 1952 by three escaped convicts. In the spring of 1953 one of the defendants wrote a novel having a story about three escaped convicts holding a family as hostages in their home, and the novel was later made into a play and also into a moving picture bearing the same title. In 1954 the play opened for a try-out and publisher of magazine decided to do an article on the play. The magazine publisher in 1955 published an article entitled 'True Crime Inspires Tense Play' and comparing the play with the ordeal of the plaintiffs about two and one-half years previously.

The Special and Trial Term entered a judgment for the plaintiffs, and the magazine publisher appealed.

The Appellate Division, 18 A.D.2d 485, 240 N.Y.S. 286, modified and affirmed the judgment and held that evidence sustained the verdict for plaintiffs, but that the admission in evidence and the showing of the moving picture, which was released almost one year after the magazine article appeared and subsequent to institution of the action for damages, was error requiring a new trial on the issue of damages. Botein, P. J., dissented in part.

The Special and Trial Term on remand awarded reduced damages to the plaintiffs and entered an order pursuant to a stipulation of the parties in favor of the plaintiffs.

The magazine publisher appealed to the Court of Appeals.

Harold R. Medina, Jr., and Alan J. Hruska, New York City, for appellant.

Leonard Garment and Donald J. Zoeller, New York, City, for respondent.

Judgment affirmed, with costs, on the majority and concurring opinions at the Appellate division.

DESMOND C. J., and DYE, VAN VOORHIS, BURKE and SCILEPPI, JJ., concur.

FULD, J., dissents in the following opinion in which BERGAN, J., concurs.

FULD, Judge (dissenting).

The article, published (in 1955) by the defendant in its magazine Life, on which the plaintiff's cause of action is predicated, read in this way:

'TRUE CRIME INSPIRES TENSE PLAY

'The Ordeal of a Family Trapped by Convicts Gives Broadway a

New Thriller,

'THE DESPERATE HOURS'

'Three years ago Americans all over the country read about the desperate ordeal of the James Hill family, who were held prisoners in their home outside Philadelphia by three escaped convicts. Later they read about it in Joseph Hayes's novel, THE DESPERATE HOURS, inspired by the family's experience. Now they can see the story re-enacted in Hayes's Broadway play based on the book, and next year will see it in his movie, which has been filmed but is being held up until the play has a chance to pay off.

'The play, directed by Robert Montgomery and expertly acted, is a heart-stopping account of how a family rose to heroism in a crisis. LIFE photographed the play during its Philadelphia tryout, Transported some of the actors to the actual house where the Hills were besieged. On the next page scenes from the play are re-enacted on the site of the crime.'

The article also contained photographs of an actual news headline relating to the plaintiff's experience (of three years previously), of the house in which the plaintiff and his family then lived and in which they were held captive and of actual stage settings of the play.

I do not believe that section 51 of the Civil Rights Law, Consol.Laws, c. 6 may be availed of to create a cause of action against those who published an article reporting a new play, unquestionably a subject worthy of press comment, and pointing out that there was a relationship between the play and an actual event, also concededly newsworthy, in which the plaintiff some years before had been involved. There can be no doubt that the play certainly bore a close and legitimate relationship to the reallife incident as, indeed, the columnar comparison made by the defendant in its brief...

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9 cases
  • Weeren v. Evening News Ass'n
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Michigan
    • 2 de outubro de 1967
    ...were to the Sullivan Case, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710 and to Hill v. Hayes, 18 A.D.2d 485, 240 N.Y.S.2d 286, aff'd. mem., 15 N.Y.2d 986, 260 N.Y.S.2d 7, 207 N.E.2d 604.9 This happened again the Curtis Pub. Co. v. Butts, supra. See the opinion of Mr. Justice Black, 388 U.S. at 170, 87 S.Ct. ......
  • Time, Inc v. Hill, 22
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • 9 de janeiro de 1967
    ...the Appellate Division 'on the majority and concurring opinions at the Appellate Division,' two judges dissenting. 15 N.Y.2d 986, 260 N.Y.S.2d 7, 207 N.E.2d 604. We noted probable jurisdiction of the appeal to consider the important constitutional questions of freedom of speech and press in......
  • Rosemont Enterprises, Inc. v. Random House, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
    • 22 de dezembro de 1966
    ...Law, McKinney's Consol. Laws, c. 6. See also Hill v. Hays, 18 A.D.2d 485, 240 N.Y.S.2d 286 (1st Dep't 1963), aff'd, 15 N.Y.2d 986, 260 N.Y.S. 2d 7, 207 N.E.2d 604 (1965); possible jurisdiction noted sub nom. Time, Inc. v. Hill, 382 U.S. 936, 86 S.Ct. 392, 15 L.Ed. 2d 348 (1965), reargument ......
  • Spahn v. Julian Messner, Inc.
    • United States
    • New York Court of Appeals
    • 27 de outubro de 1966
    ...a certain context, goes forever unprotected (Binns v. Vitagraph Co., 210 N.Y. 51, 103 N.E. 1108, L.R.A.1915C, 839; Hill v. Hayes, 15 N.Y.2d 986, 260 N.Y.S.2d 7, 207 N.E.2d 604, affg. 18 A.D.2d 485, 240 N.Y.S.2d 286). Thus it may be appropriate to say that the plaintiff here, Warren Spahn, i......
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