Derounian v. Stokes

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit
• Writing for the Court: PHILLIPS, BRATTON, and HUXMAN, Circuit
• Citation: Derounian v. Stokes, 168 F.2d 305 (10th Cir. 1948)
• Decision Date: 11 May 1948
• Docket Number: No. 3526.,3526.
• Parties: DEROUNIAN v. STOKES.

168 F.2d 305 (1948)

DEROUNIAN v. STOKES.

No. 3526.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

May 11, 1948.

B. E. Roberts and Parnell Black, both of Salt Lake City, Utah (Calvin W. Rawlings, H. E. Wallace, and Wayne L. Black, all of Salt Lake City, Utah, on the brief), for appellant.

Knox Patterson, of Salt Lake City, Utah (Parley Jenson, of Salt Lake City, Utah, on the brief), for appellee.

Before PHILLIPS, BRATTON, and HUXMAN, Circuit Judges.

BRATTON, Circuit Judge.

J. H. McKnight, Ernest Hollings, C. F. Allen, and Jeremiah Stokes instituted separate actions against Arthur Derounian to recover damages for the publication of alleged libelous matter in the book "Under Cover". The second amended complaint in the case filed by Stokes was in conventional form and quoted at length from the book; and the defenses in that case were truth, privilege, and want of malice. The four cases were consolidated for trial. McKnight, Hollings, and Allen failed before the jury. A verdict was returned in favor of Stokes; judgment was entered upon the verdict; and Derounian appealed. For convenience, the parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

One ground of the motion for a directed verdict in favor of the defendant was that the statements contained in the book having reference to plaintiff were true. It is the law in Utah as elsewhere that the truth of matters charged as defamatory exempts the publisher thereof from civil liability for libel. Williams v. Standard-Examiner Publishing Co., 83 Utah 31, 27 P. 2d 1. We do not pause to quote from the book or to review in detail other evidence adduced at the trial. At most, the evidence and its reasonable inferences merely presented the issue of fact whether the statements in the book relating to plaintiff were true. Therefore, insofar as the defense of truth was concerned, the court correctly denied the motion for a directed verdict and submitted the issue to the jury.

The essence of a requested instruction which the court refused was that if the book contained language which, taken in its plain and natural import and meaning, necessarily must or presumably would as its proximate consequence occasion plaintiffs, respectively, pecuniary loss, its publication was libelous; that the burden rested upon plaintiffs to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that such publication was libelous; that if the evidence was evenly balanced or if it preponderated in favor of the defendant, the verdict in each case should be for the defendant; and that if the material contained in the book concerning plaintiffs was libelous, then the burden rested upon the defendant to prove its truth. It may be conceded that the instruction constituted an accurate statement of the applicable law in Utah. Nichols v. Daily Reporter Co., 30 Utah 74, 83 P. 573, 3 L.R.A., N.S., 339, 116 Am.St.Rep. 796, 8 Ann.Cas. 841. But the general instructions of the court stated in different language and with substantial correctness the general principles of pertinent law outlined in the requested instruction. And we have held repeatedly that it is not error for the court to refuse a requested instruction even though correct in substance if the matter has been fairly and adequately covered in the general instructions given. Bowater v. Worley, 10 Cir., 57 F.2d 970; Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Oklahoma Terminal Elevator Co., 10 Cir., 64 F.2d 671; George v. Wiseman, 10 Cir., 98 F.2d 923; Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Banion, 10 Cir., 106 F.2d 561; Mid-Continent Pipe Line Co. v. Whiteley, 10 Cir., 116 F.2d 871; Brigham Young University v. Lillywhite, 10 Cir., 118 F.2d 836, 137 A.L.R. 598, certiorari denied 314 U.S. 638, 62 S.Ct. 73, 86 L.Ed. 512; Dyess v. W. W. Clyde & Co., 10 Cir., 132 F.2d 972; Telluride Power Co. v. Williams, 10 Cir., 164 F.2d 685.

Coming to the contention that the alleged libelous publication was privileged, at the close of all the evidence the defendant moved the court to direct the jury to return a verdict in his favor on the ground that the book generally and that part relating to the plaintiff was a publication fairly made in good faith, for proper motives, and for justifiable ends upon a matter of public interest. And the substance of a requested instruction refused by the court was that a publication made in good faith upon a matter of public interest and concerning or involving public welfare in time of war is privileged, even though without such privilege it would be actionable; that the privilege exists even though the author was under no legal duty to have the matter published; that if the matter published in the book concerning the plaintiffs was privileged, a verdict should be returned for the defendant unless the defendant was actuated by malice towards the plaintiffs in writing the book; and that if the material in the book was privileged, the burden rested upon the plaintiffs to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant was actuated by malice toward the plaintiffs in writing the statements in the book. In Williams v. Standard-Examiner Publishing Co., supra, it was held that in Utah privileged communications are two classes, absolute, and qualified or conditional; that in the case of an absolutely privileged communication the utterance or publication, although both false and malicious, does not give rise to a cause of action; that in the case of a qualified or conditionally privileged communication the law raises merely a prima facie presumption in favor of the occasion; that both classes of privileged communications rest upon grounds of public policy, the necessity of the individual to surrender his personal rights for the common welfare; that the rule of a qualifiedly privileged communication extends to a communication made bona fide upon a subject-matter in which the party communicating has an interest, or in reference to which he has a duty to a person having a corresponding interest or duty; and that the privilege includes cases where the duty is not one arising out of law, but is of a moral or social character. The cause of action there asserted was predicated upon an article in a local newspaper criticizing a city commissioner in charge of the water department of the city for furnishing contaminated water to the public which brought about an existing or a threatened epidemic of typhoid fever, and it was held that the publication was qualifiedly or conditionally privileged. Here, plaintiff was engaged in the practice of law in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a member of the Mormon church, and he had filled various positions in the church. Beginning in 1933, he wrote and caused to be published and circulated from time to time various tracts and pamphlets, and on one occasion he delivered a public address in Denver, Colorado. While he sometimes severely criticized the President of the United States, sometimes severely criticized certain other public officials, and sometimes severely criticized certain proposed or existing legislation, the gist of his writings and of the address referred to was primarily a denunciation of communism in the United States. After graduating in journalism from a recognized university, the defendant worked for certain newspapers and magazines, and he later wrote the book. The book was published in 1943, during the time the United States was engaged in war against Germany, Italy, and Japan. The general pattern of the book was to expose the pro-Nazi and the pro-Fascist elements in the United States. Many persons in various parts of the nation were named, were sometimes referred to as quislings or in other words of similar descriptive import, were classified as being disloyal to the United States, and were depicted as plotting its overthrow. Plaintiffs and others in Salt Lake City were mentioned by name; reference was made to the "Mormon City fascist cell"; and statements attributed to plaintiff were quoted which bore earmarks of disloyalty. While our attention has not been called to any language in the book stating specifically and categorically that plaintiff was pro-Nazi, or pro-Fascist, or that he was disloyal to the United States, the statements referring directly to him were clearly and certainly susceptible of that construction when read in connection with the entire book. And taking into consideration the conditions existing at the time of the publication of the book, particularly the contemporary antipathy toward the Nazi regime in Germany and the Fascist regime in Italy, the false charge or characterization of an American citizen of good character and reputation as a pro-Nazi or a pro-Fascist, or as being disloyal to the United States, was reasonably calculated to subject him to public hatred, odium, and contempt, and therefore constituted libel per se. Grant v. Reader's Digest Association, 2 Cir., 151 F.2d 733, certiorari denied 326 U. S. 797, 66 S.Ct. 492, 90 L.Ed. 485; Spanel v. Pegler, 7 Cir., 160 F.2d 619, 171 A.L.R. 699; ...