Fiori v. Truck Drivers, Local 170

• Decision Date: 07 January 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-1242.,03-1242.
• Citation: 354 F.3d 84
• Parties: James R. FIORI, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. TRUCK DRIVERS, LOCAL 170, Defendant, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 84

354 F.3d 84

James R. FIORI, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. TRUCK DRIVERS, LOCAL 170, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 03-1242.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard September 4, 2003.

Decided January 7, 2004.

Timothy P. Wickstrom with whom Tashjian, Simsarian & Wickstrom, was on brief, for appellant.

Charles J. Brucato, Jr. with whom Consigli and Brucato, P.C., was on brief, for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, SILER,^* Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

BOUDIN, Chief Judge.

James R. Fiori won a jury verdict against Truck Drivers Local 170 ("Local 170" or "the union"), a Massachusetts branch of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ("Teamsters"). Fiori was awarded damages on two different claims but only the libel award, in the amount of $150,000 (as reduced by the judge) is challenged by the union on this appeal. The background events are largely undisputed.

On May 2, 1991, while working for Tresca Brothers Sand and Gravel ("Tresca"), Fiori injured his back while shoveling gravel and began receiving workers' compensation of $428/week. A few days later, Local 170 began a strike against Tresca that would last three years. Fiori — a union member since 1982 — participated in the strike by walking the picket lines three days a week for all three years.

Local 170 paid weekly strike benefits to union workers participating in a strike, ranging from $45/week at the beginning of the strike to $200/week by the end. Fiori asked Ernie Tusino, Local 170's Secretary-Treasurer — the principal officer of Local 170, who had authority to speak for the union — whether he was allowed to receive these strike benefits in addition to workers' compensation. Tusino said he could. During the three-year strike, Fiori collected a total of $26,345 in strike benefits and more than $58,636 in workers' compensation payments.

The strike ended in 1994, and Fiori returned to work as a truck driver for other companies. In 1995 Fiori ran for vice-president of Local 170, and won. Soon after Fiori took office a power struggle began within both Local 170 and its parent Teamsters union. Both Fiori and Ernie Tusino supported James R. Hoffa, the son of former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, in the Teamsters' 1996 presidential election. The other officers of Local 170 supported the incumbent, Ron Carey.

In spring 1996 — in the midst of the national campaign — Teamsters president Carey removed Tusino from his position in Local 170, and replaced him with Richard Foley. Foley and other Local 170 officers began an investigation into Fiori's "double-dipping" (receiving both workers' compensation and strike benefits at the same time) during the Tresca strike several years before. Foley exchanged letters with Teamsters officials, who opined that double-dipping violated union rules.

In February 1997, Foley filed internal union charges against Fiori, and in March 1997, Local 170's executive board found Fiori guilty of double-dipping and removed him as vice president. Fiori was ordered to repay the strike benefits; he refused and was suspended from union membership on July 21, 1997. In the same month Foley sent all the union members a letter ("the Foley letter"), written on official Local 170 stationary, that underlies this appeal.¹

In substance, the Foley letter informed all union members that Fiori had improperly collected strike benefits and workers' compensation at the same time. The letter is factual in tone; it claims to present nothing but "the undisputed facts"; it states that Fiori had improperly received $26,345; and it emphasizes that this purloined sum was "your dues money." (emphasis in original). This letter was sent in July 1997, four months before the Local 170 election in which Fiori ran for (and lost) the position of business agent.

Fiori filed unsuccessful protests within the union challenging the Executive Board action, and then a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB heard evidence and concluded that Local 170's charges against Fiori were politically motivated retaliation: the charges were not brought until three years after Fiori stopped receiving benefits and began soon after he openly supported an opposition candidate. Local 170 was found to have committed an unfair labor practice, and the union was ordered to revoke its demand for repayment of strike benefits.

The NLRB decision did not issue until August 1998. In the meantime, the Local 170 elections had been held and Fiori had been defeated by eight votes for the position of business agent. Fiori filed the present action against Local 170 in federal district court. Only two claims survived the union's motions to dismiss and for summary judgment: Fiori's claims that he had been libeled under Massachusetts law and that his removal from office constituted retaliation in violation of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(5) (2000). See generally Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers, Local 114, 383 U.S. 53, 86 S.Ct. 657, 15 L.Ed.2d 582 (1966).

The jury found for Fiori on both counts. It awarded him $300,000 in compensatory damages on his libel claim and $234,500 in compensatory and punitive damages on his retaliation claim. On post-trial motions, the district judge reduced both awards through remittitur; the libel award was reduced to $150,000 because the judge concluded that the jury had not properly taken into account Fiori's duty to mitigate damages.

Local 170 now appeals, limiting itself to several different attacks on the libel award, all of which concede that the Foley letter was libelous. Local 170 first argues that there was insufficient evidence that the libel harmed Fiori in any way, so the claim should never have gone to the jury. There would be enough evidence for an award based on mental suffering even if Fiori's loss of the election for business agent were disregarded; but, as we will see, the real issue turns out to be the election.

Under Massachusetts law, allowable defamation damages include "special damages" — proximately caused economic losses — and also (in the case of libel) any non-economic "harm to reputation and mental suffering." Shafir v. Steele, 431 Mass. 365, 727 N.E.2d 1140, 1146 (2000); Ravnikar v. Bogojavlensky, 438 Mass. 627, 782 N.E.2d 508, 511 (2003). The emotional distress need be no more than "outrage" and "anger" upon seeing the libelous statements, Shafir, 727 N.E.2d at 1146, since mental distress is the "natural result" of libel, id. (citing Markham v. Russell, 94 Mass. 573, 575 (Mass.1866)).

Fiori testified that he felt "humiliated" when he saw the Foley letter, said that he had to deal with "a lot of accusations" from other union members, and explained that "there's not enough hours in the day to explain to the people that don't know you that it's inaccurate, it's not true, and that I didn't do anything wrong." He testified about his embarrassment and how he "didn't sleep good" after the accusations.

This mental distress is sufficient to allow the libel claim to go to the jury. See Shafir, 727 N.E.2d at 1146. The fact that Fiori admitted he had no physical symptoms besides minor sleep loss, sought no medical attention and took no medicine might limit the award that could reasonably be allowed for mental suffering. However, in this case mental suffering may be beside the point; as the district judge concluded in his post-trial decision granting remittitur, the award was pretty clearly premised on an award of economic damages.

Tusino had testified (over objection) that the business agent job paid about $100,000. Proof of mental anguish was modest. Local 170 argues on appeal, "[t]he only explanation for the jury award of $300,000 on the libel claim is that the jury drew an impermissible inference that the plaintiff lost an election for a three-year term as Business Agent, at $100,000 per year." We will assume arguendo that this inference was drawn by the jury; whether it was permissible is the next question.

The union presents its claim of error under two heads: first, that the evidence did not permit a rational jury to conclude that the libel caused Fiori's election loss, and second, that the judge should have granted the union's request for an instruction forbidding the jury to consider the election loss as a basis for economic damages. The issue can largely, although not entirely, be dealt with under the first heading, that is, as a claim of jury error.

Ordinarily, a jury verdict on an issue of causation in fact — here, whether the libel likely caused the election loss — is reviewed with great deference, the court asking whether any rational jury could so find. See Wortley v. Camplin, 333 F.3d 284, 295 (1st Cir.2003). But out of concern that libel judgments constrain free speech, both federal and Massachusetts courts tend to be somewhat more searching in their review of defamation awards.² We begin by considering the basis for the jury's verdict and then return to the First Amendment concerns.

The issue is certainly close. The union's argument is terse; its brief relies primarily on one decision, Kirk v. Transport Workers Union, AFL-CIO, 934 F.Supp. 775, 790-92 (S.D.Tex.1995), and one central point: the union claims that Fiori "failed to offer any evidence of the election, who voted, the number of votes, the voter's motives, the possibility of changing votes, etc." Thus, says the union, the record is "void" of evidence of harm. We begin with the evidence and then address precedent.

What the jury learned was that several months before Fiori ran for business agent, Foley had sent all 3,500 union members a letter on official stationary informing them that Fiori had improperly collected strike benefits and workers' compensation, depleting the members' dues money by over $25,000. The union does not now deny that this was libel, and one would expect it to be quite damaging in a union election. Here, the jury was also told by Fiori that he had...