Lininger v. Knight, 16547

Citation123 Colo. 213,226 P.2d 809
Decision Date15 January 1951
Docket NumberNo. 16547,16547
PartiesLININGER v. KNIGHT.
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado

George J. Robinson, George G. Priest, Lakewood, for plaintiff in error.

A. E. Small, Jr., Denver, for defendant in error.

HOLLAND, Justice.

Charlotte Knight, individually and doing business as Overbrook Knight Klub, defendant in error, as plaintiff filed her complaint in libel against Lininger. The parties will be referred to as plaintiff and defendant, and the defamatory article as set out in the complaint, will be designated as the petition. Trial to a jury was had on the issues as made by the complaint and answer, resulting in a verdict in plaintiff's favor in the sum of $10,500.

In substance, the allegations of the complaint were that, plaintiff was the owner and operator of the Overbrook Knight Klub in Jefferson county, with a liquor license; that on or about July 1, 1948, defendant instigated, prepared and circulated the following petition:

'Board of County Commissioners,

'Jefferson County, Colorado.

'Gentlemen:

'This petition of the home owners in Genesee Gulch, respectfully requests that the license of the Overbrook Knight club, in Genesee Gulch, be cancelled. This is purely a residential community and we would like to keep it that way.

'Overbrook Knight club is a hide-out for people who want to drink and carry on in a manner objectionable to the established morals of this community. We, therefore, look to you to keep our mountain area clean. We formally request that the license for this nuisance be cancelled forthwith.

'Respectfully yours,

'Gilbert I. Lininger,

'A. Haanstadt,

'Lou J. Putnam,

'Coval W. Diehl,

'J. P. Mather,

'Wm. R. Shaw,

'Wayne E. Shroyer,

'A. M. Boyd,

'B. F. Kennedy,

'Clem W. Collins,

'Harry W. Bundy,

'Lila J. Thiede,

'G. W. Parnell.'

That defendant maliciously instigated, prepared and circulated said petition; that same was false and seriously affected plaintiff's business, reputation, health and peace of mind to her damage in the sum of $15,000; and that the petition is libelous, containing false, scandalous, defamatory, injurious and highly prejudicial statement of, and concerning, plaintiff and her business.

Defendant answered, denying instigation of the petition as alleged, but admitted he prepared and signed the same and presented the petition to, and left it with, the board of county commissioners of Jefferson county, requesting the cancellation of the liquor license issued by the board for the club and denying all other allegations in the complaint. For a second defense, defendant alleged that access to his property was reached by passing the Overbrook Knight Klub, and that the petition was presented to the board of county commissioners as the liquor licensing authority, seeking a revocation of the liquor license and that the petition constituted a qualified, privileged communication and was not activated by malice. Plaintiff replied, denying the communication was of a privileged nature and reasserted malice in the publication thereof.

It appears from the evidence and plaintiff's exhibit C, that immediately after the filing of the petition with the board of county commissioners, the editor of the Jefferson County Republican obtained incorrect information from poorly prepared minutes of the meeting of said board, and from such information, in the July 7th issue of the Jefferson County Republican, published the following news item, 'Gilbert I. Lininger was granted a hard liquor license for his Overbrook Knight Klub in Genesee Gulch.'

The attention of the editor was called to the error thus made and in attempting to obtain and print a true statement, he again went over the minutes of the board of county commissioners, and talked to defendant. From his testimony it is not clear whether he requested defendant to bring him the original petition or copy, or not, because he stated that he was not sure. However, defendant positively testified that on and at the request of the editor, in attempting to publish the true story, defendant went to the offices of the county commissioners and asked for a copy of the petition and was not sure whether he was furnished the original or a copy, but, whichever it was, he took it to the office of Mr. Hansen, the editor, and left it there.

Mr. Hansen, the editor, stated that on the following Monday, he was checking the court house records, and a Mrs. Foley, in the office of the clerk of the district court, called his attention to the error, and he immediately made an investigation of the exact situation and upon reading the minutes of the board of county commissioners, found that they were not clear, but ambiguous and subject to double interpretation and he felt that Dr. Lininger had been wronged. Part of his testimony concerning the situation is as follows:

'Q. Let us start this way, Mr. Hansen: How did you happen to print that? Can you give us the full story now? A. Yes.

'Q. How you happened to print that? A. Because, the way the County Commissioners' minutes originally were drawn up they were quite ambiguous and subject to double interpretation. I pulled a bonehead by picturing Dr. Lininger as the person who had applied for a liquor license at the Overbrook Knight Klub, and naturally I was embarrassed and chargined. When I heard of my mistake I was ready to make amends and run a correct story.

'Q. Did you print anything with regard to your thought that Dr. Lininger had applied for a liquor license? A. I printed a correction in the lead part of this story.'

Thereafter, an article of retraction containing the petition in full appeared in the July 14th issue of the Jefferson County Republican and the East Jefferson Sentinel, both papers owned and edited by Hansen, hereinbefore mentioned as the editor, and the retraction articles are as follows:

'Genesee Gulch Protest Denied.

'We apologize!

'Dr. Gilbert I. Lininger this week called attention to a misstatement in last week's Sentinel and Republican, erroneously placing Dr. Lininger in the role of having received a liquor permit for the Overbrook Knight club in Genesee Gulch.

'Exactly the opposite was true. Dr. Lininger headed a group of 13 residents of the Genesee Gulch area, who petitioned to the Board of County Commissioners to have the Overbrook club liquor license cancelled.

'Here is a copy of the protest petition:

'Board of County Commissioners,

'Jefferson County, Colorado.

'Gentlemen:

'This petition of the home owners in Genesee Gulch, respectfully requests that the license of the Overbrook Knight club, in Genesee Gulch be cancelled. This is purely a residential community and we would like to keep it that way.

'Overbrook Knight club is a hide-out for people who want to drink and carry on in a manner objectionable to the established morals of the people of this community. We, therefore, look to you to keep our mountain area clean. We formally request that the license for this nuisance be cancelled forthwith.

'Respectfully yours,

'Gilbert I. Lininger,

'A. Haanstadt,

'Lou J. Putnam,

'Coval W. Diehl,

'J. P. Mather,

'Wm. R. Shaw,

'Wayne E. Shroyer,

'A. M. Boyd,

'B. F. Kennedy,

'Clem W. Collins,

'Harry W. Bundy,

'Lila J. Thiede,

'G. W. Parnell.'

The articles appear as plaintiff's exhibits A and B.

The trial court ruled that the petition was libelous per se; however, its presentation to the board of county commissioners was a qualified privileged communication, and, as a matter of law, no liability attached to defendant by reason of the presentation of the petition to the board of county commissioners. The trial court, over the repeated objections of counsel for defendant, admitted evidence concerning whether or not defendant caused the petitions to be published in the two newspapers herein referred to and evidence as to the effect and damage of the newspaper publications, and submitted the case to the jury under instructions as to the newspaper publications. Counsel for defendant continually objected to any evidence as to the newspaper publication because the complaint alleged only one cause of action, that of circulating and presenting the petition to the board of county commissioners.

Error is specified as follows:

'I. Each publication of a libel is a separate cause of action, and if recovery is sought for repetition of a libel, each repetition must be declared upon...

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29 cases
  • Denver Pub. Co. v. Bueno, No. 01SC386.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Colorado
    • September 16, 2002
    ...of Princeton, 126 Ill.2d 411, 128 Ill. Dec. 542, 534 N.E.2d 987, 991 (1989). 13. For its part, Inter-State relies on Lininger v. Knight, 123 Colo. 213, 226 P.2d 809 (1951), for the "specifically directed at" language. Inter-State, 484 P.2d at 133. Lininger involved a night club owner who su......
  • Ramstead v. Morgan
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of Oregon
    • December 16, 1959
    ...is made applicable to proceedings before administrative bodies having the power to grant and revoke licenses. Lininger v. Knight, 1951, 123 Colo. 213, 226 P.2d 809 (petition to County Commissioners requesting revocation of liquor license); Powers v. Vaughan, 1945, 312 Mich. 297, 20 N.W.2d 1......
  • Stump v. Gates
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    • U.S. District Court — District of Colorado
    • October 31, 1991
    ...words must, on their face, and without the aid of intrinsic proof, be unmistakably recognized as injurious." Lininger v. Knight, 123 Colo. 213, 226 P.2d 809, 813 (Colo.1951) (emphasis added); see also Inter-State Detective Bureau, Inc. v. Denver Post, Inc., 29 Colo. App. 313 484 P.2d 131, 1......
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    • October 18, 1998
    ...extrinsic evidence is necessary to show either its defamatory nature or that it is of and concerning the plaintiff. Lininger v. Knight, 123 Colo. 213, 226 P.2d 809 (1951); Inter-State Detective Bureau, Inc. v. Denver Post, Inc., 29 Colo.App. 313, 484 P.2d 131 Lind v. O'Reilly, 636 P.2d 1319......
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