Dodrill v. Arkansas Democrat Co.

• Decision Date: 02 July 1979
• Docket Number: No. 78-10,78-10
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court
• Parties: , 5 Media L. Rep. 1385 Louis Art DODRILL, Appellant, v. ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT CO. et al., Appellees.

Page 840

590 S.W.2d 840

265 Ark. 628, 5 Media L. Rep. 1385

Louis Art DODRILL, Appellant, v. ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT CO. et al., Appellees.

No. 78-10.

Supreme Court of Arkansas, In Banc.

July 2, 1979.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 10, 1979.

[265 Ark. 631] Richard Quiggle, Little Rock, for appellant.

H. William Allen, Little Rock, for appellees.

OPINION

P. H. HARDIN, Special Justice.

This appeal is prosecuted from an order of the lower court sustaining a motion for summary judgment, which dismissed Appellant's complaint seeking damages for libel and invasion of privacy. The factual background giving rise to the litigation is necessary to a clear disposition of the issues on appeal.

On February 4, 1975, upon a complaint filed by the Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct, the Pulaski Circuit Court entered judgment suspending Louis Art Dodrill's license to practice law for a period of 12 months. The judgment conditioned the reinstatement of Dodrill's license thereafter only upon Dodrill's satisfactorily passing the regular examination for admission to the bar. No appeal from the judgment was taken by Dodrill, but he subsequently filed a petition in this court challenging the circuit court's power to condition the reinstatement of his license upon his taking and passing the regular bar examination for admission to the bar. We dismissed the petition holding that the circuit court acted within its jurisdiction. See, In re Dodrill, 260 Ark. 223, 538 S.W.2d 549 (1976).

Thereafter, Dodrill took the regular bar examination administered August 9-11, 1976. The Board of Bar Examiners met in regular session and on August 21, 1976, announced the names of applicants who had passed the examination. The Secretary of the Board of Bar Examiners, in keeping with a long standing practice, provided a list of the names of the applicants who had passed the examination to the major newspapers in the state, namely, the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Gazette.

The Sunday, August 22, 1976, issue of the Arkansas Democrat included an article which, among other things, stated:

SUSPENDED LR LAWYER FAILS BAR EXAMINATION

Louis Arthur Dodrill, a Little Rock lawyer whose license was suspended for a year on Feb. 4, 1975, for unethical conduct in his dealings with four clients, failed to pass the August examination of the State Board of Bar Examiners.

Following the above publication, Dodrill filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the Pulaski Circuit Court seeking an order directing the State Board of Bar Examiners to report his scores on the August, 1976, examination. The Board of Bar Examiners filed a motion to dismiss and on October 27, 1976, the Arkansas Democrat, in an article headlined "EXAM BOARD LAWYER ASKS SUIT DISMISSAL", recounted the efforts by the Board of Bar Examiners to have the suit dismissed, and a brief history of the controversy, including that Dodrill's name had not been published along with the list of successful examinees. ¹

Being unsuccessful in the mandamus proceedings, Dodrill filed complaint against the members of the Board of Bar Examiners in the United States District Court seeking injunctive and other relief alleging, among other things, that the members of the Board of Examiners were responsible for the publication of the first above quoted article appearing in the Arkansas Democrat.

The affidavits, interrogatories and answers thereto, together with other factual materials properly before the trial court require the following findings: (1) that Dodrill, in fact, had passing scores upon the written examination administered by the Board of Bar Examiners in August of 1976; (2) that the Board of Bar Examiners declined to list his name among the applicants who successfully passed the examination at that time; (3) that Dodrill was not listed because the Board was continuing its investigation into Dodrill's conduct during the period of his suspension and to otherwise determine that he, in all respects, conformed to requirements of this court for admission to practice; and (4) that finally, on May 14, 1977, the Board of Bar Examiners certified Dodrill to be licensed, he having successfully passed the examination.

Following the reinstatement of his license, Dodrill filed his complaint in the court below seeking damages against the Arkansas Democrat for libel contained in the publication of the two articles above mentioned and for invasion of his right to privacy. In sustaining the Arkansas Democrat's motion for summary judgment dismissing Dodrill's complaint, the trial court found, Inter alia, that Dodrill had gained the status of a "public figure" because of litigation and publicity surrounding his suspension from the practice of law; that the article complained of contained material of general and public concern, namely, requirements for admission to the bar and efforts for readmission to the bar by a previously suspended lawyer; and that Dodrill had failed to demonstrate that the articles were published with actual malice.

We recognize as controlling the time-honored rule that a summary judgment is an extreme remedy. The burden is upon the moving party to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact for trial, and evidence submitted in support of the motion must be viewed most favorably to the party resisting the motion. Gallman v. Carnes, 254 Ark. 987, 497 S.W.2d 47 (1973); Quillen, Adm'x v. Twin City Bank, 253 Ark. 169, 485 S.W.2d 181 (1972).

A. THE LIBEL CLAIM

The central issue presented by this appeal is whether the court erred in finding Dodrill was a "public figure", thus affording the Arkansas Democrat First Amendment protection from an action for defamation in the absence of proof of actual malice as that doctrine has been announced by numerous decisions of the United States Supreme Court. New York Times Company v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964); Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 87 S.Ct. 1975, 18 L.Ed.2d 1094 (1967); St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 88 S.Ct. 1323, 20 L.Ed.2d 262 (1968); Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 91 S.Ct. 1811, 29 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971).

Rosenbloom, supra, extended the privilege announced in New York Times v. Sullivan, supra, to publications concerning matters of general or public interest regardless of the plaintiff's status. However, the Court in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974) repudiated Rosenbloom and held that the general rule announced there was inappropriate in those cases where the reputations of private individuals were placed in jeopardy.

In Gertz, the Court noted that public figures usually enjoy significantly greater access to channels of effective communication than private individuals. The Court reasoned that private individuals were more vulnerable because of lack of a forum to rebut false statements and that they were more deserving of recovery because they had not thrust themselves into the vortex of public controversy. The Court defined "public figures" as individuals who

have assumed roles of especial prominence in the affairs of society. Some occupy positions of such persuasive power and influence that they are deemed public figures for all purposes. More commonly, those classed as public figures have thrust themselves to the forefront of particular public controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved. Id. 345, 94 S.Ct. 3009.

The definition of "public figure" is quite broad and, indeed, one may be held a public figure for limited purposes. Various courts have held included within the definition a football coach, ² political activist, ³ wife of nationally known television celebrity, ⁴ editor of newspaper, ⁵ and a belly dancer. ⁶ The classification of "public figure" in these instances was justified by the particular facts of those cases. While all of the individuals who have been held to be public figures have not taken active parts in debates on public issues, they nevertheless remained persons in whom the public has a continuing interest in that in each instance the individual had taken affirmative steps to attract public attention or had strived to achieve some degree of public acclaim.

The most celebrated decision dealing with the question of public figure versus private individual is Time, Inc. v. Firestone, 424 U.S. 448, 96 S.Ct. 958, 47 L.Ed.2d 154 (1976), which arose out of a libel action by the former wife of an heir of one of America's wealthiest industrial families. The Court rejected the publisher's contention that Mrs. Firestone was a public figure even though it appeared from the Court's opinion, both majority and dissent, that she was a fairly publicized individual who had held a few or several press conferences. The Court particularly pointed to its definition of "public figure" as defined in Gertz and concluded that Mrs. Firestone did not assume a role of especial prominence in the affairs of society and that she had not thrust herself to the forefront of any public controversy in order to influence its resolution.

The Court, in dealing with the publisher's contention that the Firestone divorce had been characterized by the Florida Supreme Court as a "cause celebre" and that it was a public controversy, observed:

But in so doing Petitioner seeks to equate 'public controversy' with all controversies of interest to the public. Were we to accept this reasoning, we would reinstate the doctrine advanced in the plurality opinion in Rosenbloom . . . which concluded that the New York Times privilege should be extended to falsehoods defamatory of private persons whenever the statements concern matters of general or public interest. Id. 454, 96 S.Ct. at 965.

The Court concluded that a divorce is not the sort of public controversy referred to in Gertz even though the matrimonial difficulties of some individuals may be of interest to a portion of the reading public. The Court further observed...