Hellesen v. Knaus Truck Lines, Inc., 49845

• Decision Date: 09 September 1963
• Docket Number: No. 2,No. 49845,49845,2
• Parties: 54 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2250, 48 Lab.Cas. P 50,911 Donald A. HELLESEN, Appellant, v. KNAUS TRUCK LINES, INC., Respondent
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 341

370 S.W.2d 341

54 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2250, 48 Lab.Cas. P 50,911

Donald A. HELLESEN, Appellant, v. KNAUS TRUCK LINES, INC., Respondent.

No. 49845.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

Sept. 9, 1963.

Frank O. Benson, Quinn, Peebles & Hickman, Kansas City, for appellant.

John C. Russell, Donald E. Raymond, Kansas City, for respondent.

EAGER, Judge.

In this case the trial court sustained a motion to dismiss, and dismissed plaintiff's first amended petition with prejudice. The suit is one for libel. We have jurisdiction because the prayer of the petition is for $30,000. The petition alleged: that plaintiff was employed by defendant as an over-the-road truck driver, and that he was a member of Local 41 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (which we shall hereafter refer to as Teamsters); that the contract setting forth the 'terms and conditions' of plaintiff's employment contained in Article X the following: 'The Employer shall not discharge nor suspend any employee without just cause, but in respect to discharge or suspension shall give at least one (1) warning notice of the complaint against such employee to the employee, in writing, and a copy of the same to the Union affected, except that no warning notice need be given to an employee before he is discharged if the cause of such discharge is dishonesty or drunkenness, or recklessness resulting in serious accident while on duty, or the carrying of unauthorized passengers. The warning notice as herein provided shall not remain in effect for a period of more than nine (9) months from date of said warning notice. Discharge must be by proper written notice to the employee and the Union affected.' Plaintiff then alleged that on June 28, 1960, one F. E. Crowder, defendant's agent, acting within the scope of his agency, willfully, wrongfully and maliciously published concerning plaintiff the following letter, alleged to be false, defamatory and libelous:

'Mr. Donald A. Helleson 3238 Independence Ave. Kansas City, Missouri Dear Sir: On June 10, 1960, you were a member of a sleeper team who delivered a load of wheat at the Beardstown Mills Company, Beardstown, Illinois. Starting on that date, a survey or check of peddle time was conducted lasting for two weeks, report of which was recently received by this office. The report reveals that your actual peddle time was twenty-five minutes, you charged this company one and one half hours as evidenced by your pay sheet and log book. Penalties for dishonesty are clearly outlined in Article X of the Central States Area Over-the-Road Motor Freight Agreement; however, this Company elects to reduce the severity of the penalty of this instance. In view of the above-mentioned facts, I am issuing this warning letter for dishonesty as outlined in Article Z of the Over-the-Road Agreement. Should this occur in the future, more severe disciplinary action will be necessary. Yours very truly, KNAUS TRUCK LINES, INC., F. E. Crowder, Safety Supervisor, FEC:gm CC: Local Union #41.'

Plaintiff further alleged: that the letter was published 'by placing said copy in defendant's files and records * * *' and by causing a copy 'to be mailed and delivered to said Teamsters Local Union No. 41 in Kansas City, Missouri' where it became a part of plaintiff's union record; that the letter falsely attributed to plaintiff the commission of a 'fraud, theft and embezzlement, and of stealing by means of deceit, * * *' the latter being a crime under Secs. 560.156 and 560.161, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., ¹ as amended; that the letter directly tended to prejudice plaintiff in his trade and employment (as elaborated somewhat in the petition) and tended to expose him to public hatred, contempt and ridicule (also amplified) in violation of Sec. 559.410; that plaintiff's reputation was thus blackened, he was humiliated, and that his ability to acquire and retain jobs had been affected. Compensatory damages of $15,000 were sought, along with punitive damages in the same amount. The motion to dismiss was predicated upon the ground that the petition failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. We gather that 'peddle time' means time spent in waiting for a truck to be unloaded, though the briefs do not elaborate.

Since no special damages are pleaded, the letter must have constituted a libel per se in order to be actionable. Langworthy v. Pulitzer Publishing Co., Mo., 368 S.W.2d 385; Nordlund v. Consolidated Electric Co-Op., Mo., 289 S.W.2d 93, 57 A.L.R.2d 832. In such a situation we consider the words of the letter, stripped of extraneous allegations. Langworthy, supra. And always, the words are to be considered in their 'ordinary meaning in the plain and popular sense,' and the instrument 'must be interpreted from its four corners.' Jacobs v. Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., 358 Mo. 674, 216 S.W.2d 523, 525, 6 A.L.R.2d 1002.

Plaintiff asserts here that the letter did constitute a libel per se, both as (a) imputing the commission of a crime, i. e., stealing under Sec. 560.156, and (b) as tending to disgrace and degrade plaintiff, expose him to public hatred, contrmpt and ridicule, and as reflecting on his integrity, character and good name. As to (a), he cites generally Lightfoot v. Jennings, 363 Mo. 878, 254 S.W.2d 596; Starnes v. St. Joseph Railway, Light, Heat & Power Co., 331 Mo. 44, 52 S.W.2d 852; and Priest v. Central States Fire Ins. Co., 223 Mo.App. 122, 9 S.W.2d 543. Those cases are applicable here only as stating general principles, with perhaps the further proposition that the specific crime need not be named if the language used is susceptible only of the construction that some crime is charged. As to (b), we note Sec. 559.410 defining the term libel; that statute primarily concerns criminal libel, but it has been held that the definition is applicable both in criminal and civil cases, and that '* * * any false, unprivileged, written communication which, reasonably construed, comes within the statutory definition is libelous per se. Seested v. Post Printing & Publishing Co., 326 Mo. 559, 575, 31 S.W.2d 1045, 1052 [4-7.]' Coots v. Payton, Banc, 365 Mo. 180, 280 S.W.2d 47, loc. cit. 53. But the article (or letter) must be one defamatory in itself before the provisions of this statute attach. Coots v. Payton, Banc, 365 Mo. 180, 280 S.W.2d 47; Langworthy v. Pulitzer Publishing Co., Mo., 368 S.W.2d 385. Defendant argues that this letter was not libelous: (a) because the petition alleged no special damages and the allegations cannot constitute a libel per quod; and (b) because, considered from the standpoint of a libel per se, the innuendo asserting the charge of a crime cannot enlarge the words actually used (Grossman v. Globe-Democrat Pub. Co., 347 Mo. 869, 149 S.W.2d 362), and because the letter did not charge that plaintiff had acquired any money or property of defendant wrongfully, or even that the log book and pay sheet were the basis of computing plaintiff's wages; further, that only by a strained construction could the letter be construed as an accusation of a crime. Out 'stealing' statute has not been effective long enough to have been the subject of many constructions; it is not necessary to construe it specifically here. For the present purpose we shall assume that the letter charged plaintiff with the crime of acquiring or stealing defendant's property by deceit, or of an attempt to do so. See, on the latter, Sec. 556.150. We note also that the letter referred to 'Penalties for dishonesty' as outlined in Article X of the labor contract, and also that the letter was issued as a 'warning letter for dishonesty * * *.'

The real questions here involve the doctrines of qualified privilege and consent. The issues have been confused somewhat by arguments pro and con that there was and was not an actionable publication but, upon analysis, it seems obvious that what defendant's counsel really mean is that such publication as was made was fully protected, while plaintiff's counsel insist that there was a publication, protected only by a qualified privilege. At this point we note that although plaintiff alleged generally that the defendant's agent wrote and 'published' the supposed libelous words, when we read the petition from its 'four corners' we find that this generally stated conclusion is limited by the specific allegations that defendant 'published' the letter by placing a copy in its files and by mailing a copy to the Teamsters Local. We shall only consider these specific allegations. Farm & Home Savings & Loan Ass'n of Missouri v. Armstrong, 337 Mo. 349, 85 S.W.2d 461, 464-465; Coble v. Economy Forms Corp., Mo.App., 304 S.W.2d 47, 53.

The petition discloses that plaintiff belonged to Local 41 of the Teamsters; his union will be conclusively presumed to have been his agent in negotiating and executing the labor contract. That contract required a warning notice before any discharge or suspension, with a copy to the union, except in case of a discharge for dishonesty, drunkenness, recklessness on duty, etc. Here the defendant elected to give a warning notice in a situation where it was probably not required to do so; but its election not to discharge plaintiff immediately and to give a notice was for his benefit, and we think that the defendant was fully justified in electing the more lenient course. Having properly done so, a copy of the letter was necessarily sent to the Local of the Union. Defendant could (and undoubtedly would) have discharged plaintiff by precisely the same kind of letter it used here.

We shall dispose first of the contention that defendant effected an actionable publication of the alleged libel by placing a copy in its files; we are cited to no case, pro or con, specifically in point. While there seems to be some divergence of thought on the subject generally, it appears to be the better and majority rule that communications between...