Littlefield v. Fort Dodge Messenger, C 76-3048.
| Citation | 481 F. Supp. 919 |
| Decision Date | 29 December 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. C 76-3048.,C 76-3048. |
| Parties | Paul William LITTLEFIELD, Plaintiff, v. FORT DODGE MESSENGER et al., Defendants. |
| Court | United States District Courts. 8th Circuit. Northern District of Iowa |
Paul W. Littlefield, pro se.
Herbert R. Bennett, Fort Dodge, Iowa, for defendants.
FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
This libel action was tried to the court November 1, 1978. All briefs, arguments and proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law now having been received, plaintiff's complaint is dismissed. The following, including the memorandum, shall constitute the court's findings of fact and conclusions of law.
1. Plaintiff is a citizen of Missouri and at all times material was licensed to practice law in Iowa.
2. At all times material defendants Messenger Printing Company, Division of Ogden Newspaper, Inc. (Messenger) and Mike Glover were citizens of Iowa.
3. Messenger published a daily newspaper known as the "Fort Dodge Messenger", in Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa where Glover was employed as a reporter.
4. On December 19, 1974 Messenger published an article on its front page written by Glover about plaintiff's pending disciplinary proceedings entitled "Set Hearing on License Suspension."
5. Said article stated in part:
(Par. 2) . . . Littlefield pleaded guilty in August, 1973 to charges of attempting to commit a felony in Fayette County, Ky. . . . One of the terms of the probation was that he not practice law for three years.
The article went on to state:
(Par. 11) The order, filed by the court Monday, states that "satisfactory evidence has been received of your (Littlefield's) pleading guilty of a felony" and that Littlefield "did return to the State of Iowa and did engage in the practice of law."
6. "Attempting to commit a felony" is a misdemeanor in Kentucky and not a felony.
7. Glover obtained his information regarding plaintiff's disciplinary proceedings from public records in the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Iowa.
8. Plaintiff was a "public figure" for the limited purpose of his disciplinary proceedings.
9. Glover's reference to plaintiff's "pleading guilty of a felony" in one of the latter paragraphs of the article was negligent but without actual malice and without a reckless disregard for the truth.
1. The court has jurisdiction over the parties and subject matter. 28 U.S.C. § 1332.1
2. Plaintiff failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that defendants' acts were malicious.
3. Plaintiff failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that defendants libeled him. McCarney v. Des Moines Register & Tribune Co., 239 N.W.2d 152, 155 (Iowa 1976); St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 88 S.Ct. 1323, 20 L.Ed.2d 262 (1968); Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 74, 85 S.Ct. 209, 13 L.Ed.2d 125 (1964); Time, Inc. v. McLaney, 406 F.2d 565, 573 (5th Cir.), cert. denied 395 U.S. 922, 89 S.Ct. 1776, 23 L.Ed.2d 239 (1969). See New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 283, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964); Cf., Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 351, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974).
4. Plaintiff failed to prove any injury or damages.
Memorandum OpinionIn 1964 the United States Supreme Court established that a "public official" cannot be libeled unless publication of the false and allegedly libelous statement was made with "actual malice". New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964).2 Over a decade later it addressed the enigma of attempting to distinguish between "public figures" to whom the New York Times standard would be applied and private persons whose privacy rights demanded more protection. Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1976). And more recently the Court has attempted to flesh out its rather amorphous definition of "private person" in Time, Inc. v. Firestone, 424 U.S. 448, 96 S.Ct. 958, 47 L.Ed.2d 154 (1976). These cases attempt to balance the media's first amendment rights against a person's right to privacy in the form of his or her reputation.
The Gertz Court specifically rejected any test relying on the nature of issues under press scrutiny to determine the standard to be applied to conduct complained of as libelous. In so doing it overruled Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 91 S.Ct. 1811, 29 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971) and created a public-private test under which defamation of "public officials" and "public figures" requires "actual malice", and defamation of private persons requires a minimum of negligent conduct. The court stated:
The extension of the New York Times test proposed by the Rosenbloom plurality would abridge this legitimate state interest providing a legal remedy for defamatory falsehood injurious to reputation of a private individual to a degree that we find unacceptable. And it would occasion the additional difficulty of forcing state and federal judges to decide on an ad hoc basis which publications address issues of "general or public interest" and which do not — to determine, in the words of Mr. Justice Marshall, "what information is relevant to self-government." Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. at 79, 91 S.Ct. 1811 at 1837. We doubt the wisdom of committing this task to the conscience of judges. . . The "public or general interest" test for determining the applicability of the New York Times standard to private defamation actions inadequately serves both of the competing values at stake. 418 U.S. at 346, 94 S.Ct. at 3010.
In place of the "public interest" test it established the dichotomy of "public officials" and "public figures" on the one hand and private persons on the other. A person qualifying for public status sacrifices his or her privacy rights to the media's first amendment privilege except where "actual malice" can be proven. Alternatively, a private person need prove as little as negligence to establish libel since the media's first amendment privilege is considered diminished when it impinges on a private person's reputational rights.
The tension existing between the need for a vigorous and uninhibited press and the legitimate interest in redressing wrongful injury to reputation begs for accommodation. Id. at 342, 94 S.Ct. 2997. The court's attempt to establish a broad rule based on public-private classification is just such an accommodation, but like the standard in Rosenbloom it also is susceptible to inconsistent application. Rather than drawing lines between issues of public and private "interest", the courts are now required to decide who is and who is not a "public official" or "public figure" for purposes of first amendment privilege.
The plaintiff urges this court to find him a private person and apply the negligence standard to defendant's conduct. Defendant naturally argues the reverse, that for purposes of a disciplinary proceeding before the Iowa Supreme Court plaintiff should be considered a public figure, and the court agrees.
Plaintiff was an attorney evidently licensed by the Iowa Supreme Court to practice law. Prior to practicing in Iowa his license had been suspended in Kentucky after he pled guilty to "attempting to commit a felony" in connection with falsifying credit application forms. He was sentenced to three years probation in Kentucky. One of the conditions of probation was that he not practice law. Almost immediately he started a practice in Iowa in violation of his probation. A grievance was filed with the Grievance Commission of the Supreme Court of Iowa. The Committee on Professional Ethics and Conduct of the Iowa State Bar Association processed the complaint and filed its findings with the Grievance Commission which recommended to the Supreme Court that plaintiff be suspended. That report and the disposition of the matter by the Supreme Court are clearly public record under Court Rule 118 of the Supreme Court of Iowa.
Under Gertz and Firestone the fact that these reports and findings were public is not in itself dispositive of the issue whether the plaintiff should be classified a public or private figure. Nor does the additional fact that defendant was reporting about quasi-judicial and judicial proceedings immunize it from liability under a New York Times actual-malice standard. See Time, Inc. v. Firestone, 424 U.S. at 455-457, 96 S.Ct. 958. Even the public's interest in knowing about the disciplining of an attorney from whom they may wish to seek services will not render this case susceptible to the New York Times actual-malice standard since Gertz and Firestone clearly indicate that only the plaintiff's personal status and conduct are relevant.
In this case the plaintiff was not thrust into the lime-light by the media. It found him there after he violated an express provision of his probation. Plaintiff is unlike Gertz and Firestone in that he was drawn into a public forum and debate as a result of his purposeful act of practicing law in Iowa in direct contravention of his probation. Where Gertz represented a client in a civil suit, Littlefield is the subject of a disciplinary proceeding. Nor is plaintiff here like Mrs. Firestone. The Firestone case evolved out of a messy divorce proceeding which the court noted was a private affair that only became public when Mrs. Firestone sought her sole legal remedy — court action to resolve the marital dispute. Thus, those persons involuntarily drawn into court or who are compelled to go there to obtain "release from the bonds of matrimony" may in most cases retain private status. 424 U.S. at 454-455, 96 S.Ct. at 965.
The Gertz Court made it clear that:
In some instances an individual may achieve such pervasive fame or notoriety that he becomes a public figure for all purposes and in all contexts. Most commonly, an individual voluntarily injects himself or is drawn into a public controversy and thereby becomes a public figure for a limited range of...
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Littlefield v. Fort Dodge Messenger, 79-1215
...as a result of his purposeful act of practicing law in Iowa in direct contravention of his probation. Littlefield v. Fort Dodge Messenger et al., 481 F.Supp. 919, 922 (D.N.D.Iowa 1978). The district court also noted that the substantial public interest in bar disciplinary proceedings was an......