Baker v. Howard
| Decision Date | 08 December 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 24021.,24021. |
| Citation | 419 F.2d 376 |
| Parties | Lloyd P. BAKER, Appellant, v. Charles HOWARD, N. R. Adkins, Michael J. Reynolds, Robert H. Ayre, Klamath Falls Broadcasting Co. Radio Station KAGO, a corporation, John L. Ferm and Mike Hammer, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Paul R. Meyer (argued), of Kobin & Meyer, Portland, Or., for appellant.
Edward H. Warren (argued), of Hershiser & Mitchell, Portland, Or., Haviland & Karaman, Medford, Or., Allan B. DeSchweinitz, Salem, Or. (argued), for Klamath Falls Broadcasting Co.
Before HAMLEY, HAMLIN and WRIGHT, Circuit Judges.
Asserting jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343 (civil rights), and under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (federal question), Lloyd P. Baker brought this action for damages and injunctive relief against the police officers and the city manager of Klamath Falls, Oregon, radio station KAGO in Klamath Falls, and two employees of KAGO. The district court dismissed the action on defendants' motion, for failure to state a claim, and Baker appeals.
In his complaint Baker alleged that the actions of defendant police officers in concert with defendant KAGO invaded his "constitutionally protected right of privacy." Specifically, plaintiff alleged that after the police had investigated a "suspicious incident" involving him and had concluded that no crime had been committed, the police deliberately released to KAGO a police report containing "libelous and false statements" suggesting that plaintiff had committed a crime. KAGO then published the report to the community. According to Baker, this conduct directly resulted in the loss of his teaching job and also damaged him in other ways.
The district court dismissed the action upon the ground that the facts alleged would not, if proven, establish that Baker has been deprived of any right secured by the Constitution of the United States.
We agree. Under some circumstances there can be such a gross abuse of privacy as to amount to an abridgement of fundamental constitutional guarantees. See Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 485, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965); York v. Story, 9 Cir., 324 F.2d 450, 454-455. But the invasion of privacy here complained of is not, in our opinion, so flagrant that it calls for invocation of the Constitution. We need not decide whether the facts alleged state a claim for breach of a common law right to privacy. This is not a diversity action.
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McNally v. Pulitzer Pub. Co.
...U.S. 872, 94 S.Ct. 102, 38 L.Ed.2d 90 (1973) (furnishing of arrest information regarding criminal suspect to news media); Baker v. Howard, 419 F.2d 376 (9th Cir. 1969) (publication by police of charges of criminal conduct, after concluding that plaintiff had not in fact committed the crime)......
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Morris v. Danna
...to humiliate and injure the plaintiffs failed to state a constitutionally based cause of action under § 1983). Accord, Baker v. Howard, 419 F.2d 376, 377 (9th Cir. 1969). The Court concludes that this rule provides the answer to the constitutional privacy claim made here. This Court has dis......
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Crain v. Krehbiel
...made out a violation of the right of privacy secured by the Fourteenth Amendment. That court refused to extend York in Baker v. Howard, 419 F.2d 376 (9 Cir. 1969) (per curiam by a panel including the author of York), where the plaintiff alleged that the police disseminated false information......
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Stockheimer v. Underwood
...Rosenberg v. Martin, 478 F.2d 520 (2d Cir. 1973), cert. denied 414 U.S. 872, 94 S.Ct. 102, 38 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974); Baker v. Howard, 419 F.2d 376 (9th Cir. 1969). Nor does a liberal reading of the complaint support a claim of interference or conspiracy to interfere with plaintiff's rights of a......