Draghetti v. Chmielewski

• Decision Date: 26 January 1994
• Citation: 626 N.E.2d 862,416 Mass. 808
• Parties: , 22 Media L. Rep. 1456 Steven G. DRAGHETTI v. Stanley J. CHMIELEWSKI.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 862

626 N.E.2d 862

416 Mass. 808, 22 Media L. Rep. 1456

Steven G. DRAGHETTI v. Stanley J. CHMIELEWSKI.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,

Hampden.

Argued Oct. 4, 1993.

Decided Jan. 26, 1994.

David A. Robinson, Longmeadow (Thomas S. Locke, Springfield, and Christopher C. Johnson, Agawam, with him), for defendant.

Stewart T. Graham, Jr., Springfield, for plaintiff.

Before LIACOS, C.J., and WILKINS, ABRAMS, NOLAN, LYNCH, O'CONNOR and GREANEY, JJ.

ABRAMS, Justice.

The defendant, Stanley J. Chmielewski, appeals from a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff, Steven G. Draghetti, on claims of defamation and interference with business and contractual relations. At issue on the defamation claim was whether Draghetti's defamation claim should have been submitted to the jury because statements attributed to Chmielewski in a newspaper article were not direct quotations. At issue on the claims for interference with business and contractual relationships was the sufficiency of the evidence. We transferred the appeal to this court on our own motion. We affirm.

In his complaint, Draghetti alleged causes of action for unlawful interference with contractual relations (count I); unlawful interference with advantageous business relations (count II); defamation (count III); and intentional infliction of emotional distress (count IV). Chmielewski moved for a directed verdict on all counts. A judge in the Superior court allowed the motion on count IV. The jury found Chmielewski liable on the defamation claim in the amount of $50,000, and on the claims for interference with business and contractual relations in the amount of $32,760. ¹ Chmielewski moved for a new trial, or in the alternative, for a remittitur of damages. The judge denied Chmielewski's motions. Chmielewski appeals.

Facts. Steven G. Draghetti is a police officer in the town of Agawam. In 1987, Draghetti also had a second part-time job as an instructor at the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Center (academy), the Commonwealth's regional police training academy. Stanley J. Chmielewski is chief of police in Agawam.

On March 17, 1987, Draghetti injured his back while on duty as a police officer. His physician recommended four days' rest. On March 19, 1987, Draghetti was scheduled to teach a class at the academy. He arranged for a substitute teacher. Because the teacher was inexperienced, Draghetti attended the class in order to lend assistance, should the substitute need help. Police officers are forbidden to work while on the injured roster. Draghetti submitted no payment voucher for the March 19 class. The substitute teacher was paid for teaching at the academy that day.

Agawam police Captain Richard Light received a report that Draghetti was at the academy in uniform on March 19. He ordered an investigation and reported the incident to Chmielewski. On March 23, 1987, Light informed Draghetti that he had dropped the investigation because there was no evidence of a conflict of interest.

On March 31, 1987, Chmielewski wrote a letter to the director of the academy which stated, in relevant part: "Draghetti ... has a problem with scheduling his time between his responsibilities at the Agawam Police Department and the Academy. It is for this reason that I feel for the best of all concerned you replace him as an instructor as soon as possible." Shortly thereafter, the academy replaced Draghetti as an instructor.

In 1989, the district attorney's office for the Hampden District commenced an investigation into the allegations that another Agawam police officer, Lieutenant Robert Campbell, received payment both for teaching and for police duty for the same shift. At that time, the district attorney's office also investigated the earlier allegations against Draghetti.

In March, 1989, a reporter for a local newspaper talked with Chmielewski with regard to the district attorney's investigation of Draghetti and Campbell. An article appeared in the March 23, 1989, edition of the Springfield Union-News, which the plaintiff alleged defamed him in the headline and first two paragraphs. ² Six months later, a different Union-News reporter interviewed Chmielewski, and a second article appeared on September 26 1989. ³ At trial, Draghetti testified that the two Union-News articles caused him emotional stress. Other officers ridiculed him at work. At home, he began having marital troubles. As of the trial date in January, 1991, Draghetti had not resumed teaching at the academy.

Defamation. Chmielewski contends that the defamation claim should not have been submitted to the jury because the statements were not defamatory and did not accuse Draghetti of any wrongdoing. Chmielewski further argues that, since the articles contained no direct quotations from him, he should not be held responsible for their impact.

The test whether a publication is defamatory is whether, in the circumstances, the writing discredits the plaintiff "in the minds of any considerable and respectable segment in the community." Tropeano v. Atlantic Monthly Co., 379 Mass. 745, 751, 400 N.E.2d 847 (1980), quoting Stone v. Essex County Newspapers, Inc., 367 Mass. 849, 853, 330 N.E.2d 161 (1975). Where a communication is susceptible of both a defamatory and nondefamatory meaning, a question of fact exists for the jury. Jones v. Taibbi, 400 Mass. 786, 792, 512 N.E.2d 260 (1987).

The March 23 article states that Chmielewski "confirmed that the allegations against ... Draghetti were referred to the district attorney's office after being checked out by the department." Chmielewski's statements could reasonably be understood to convey the message that the police department had investigated allegations against Draghetti and found sufficient cause to refer them to the district attorney for criminal investigation. In fact, the internal investigation revealed that there was insufficient cause to warrant a criminal investigation. The September 26 article reported, "Chmielewski said there was evidence that Draghetti ... intended to collect pay for teaching at the Academy while on duty." Collecting pay for teaching while on duty is a crime. Chmielewski's statements reasonably could be understood to mean that there was evidence that Draghetti intended to commit a crime. There was no such evidence. Imputation of a crime is defamatory per se. Stone v. Essex County Newspapers, Inc., 367 Mass. 849, 853, 330 N.E.2d 161 (1975). Thus, Chmielewski's statements were susceptible of a defamatory meaning.

Chmielewski argues that the statements were not direct quotations. Chmielewski is not immune from liability simply because the statements were not direct quotations. "Defamation is the publication of material by one without a privilege to do so which ridicules or treats the plaintiff with contempt." Correllas v. Viveiros, 410 Mass. 314, 319, 572 N.E.2d 7 (1991). ⁴ Presence of quotation marks is not an element of the tort, and is not required. ⁵ Chmielewski does not claim that his remarks were deliberately altered by the reporters. At trial, he did not recall exactly what he had said or if he had spoken to reporters at all. Two reporters testified that they interviewed Chmielewski, and that the articles accurately reported statements he made to them. The statements reported in the articles were susceptible of a defamatory meaning. We conclude that the judge properly denied Chmielewski's motion for a directed verdict.

b. Conditional privilege. Chmielewski maintains that, even if the articles defamed Draghetti, the statements were conditionally privileged. ⁶ He offers three bases for the privilege: (1) the statements were reasonably necessary to serve the police department's legitimate interest in Draghetti's fitness to perform his job; (2) the statements were made by a public official while performing his official duties; (3) Chmielewski and the citizens who read the Union-News had a common interest in the communications.

Chmielewski asserts that as police chief he had a right, even a duty, to speak to the press about Draghetti. We do not agree. In those cases in which we have held that an employer has a conditional privilege to make defamatory statements, ⁷ the statements were published to a narrow group who shared an interest in the communication. In none of the cases did the employer publish the defamatory statements to a newspaper of general circulation. The judge properly rejected Chmielewski's requested jury instruction. At oral argument, defense counsel conceded that, although the chief of police has broad powers of regulation, that does not include regulation through the newspapers.

Similarly, a police chief has no official duty to report internal investigations to the press. The conditional privilege to publish defamatory material is designed to allow public officials to speak freely on matters of public importance in the exercise of their official duties. Mulgrew v. Taunton, 410 Mass. 631, 635, 574 N.E.2d 389 (1991). See W. Prosser & W. Keeton, Torts § 115, at 830 (1984). In Mulgrew, we said that a police chief had a conditional privilege to inform a committee of the city council about a police officer's past performance because "[t]he public has an interest in having a police force comprised of competent and able individuals." Mulgrew v. Taunton, supra at 635, 574 N.E.2d 389. Chmielewski was not communicating with individuals charged with the responsibility of police administration, as was the defendant in Mulgrew. Statements made by Chmielewski during the original investigation of Draghetti might have been privileged if made to persons concerned with the investigation.

Last, Chmielewski asserts that he and the citizens who read the Union-News share a "common interest" in the communication which entitles him to a qualified privilege. Such a distortion of the meaning of the "common interest" privilege would create a privilege for virtually all newsworthy statements. ⁸ We conclude that...