Holloway v. Am. Media, Inc.

• Decision Date: 22 May 2013
• Docket Number: Case No. 2:12–cv–2216–TMP.
• Parties: Elizabeth Ann HOLLOWAY, Plaintiff, v. AMERICAN MEDIA, INC., and the National Enquirer, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

947 F.Supp.2d 1252

Elizabeth Ann HOLLOWAY, Plaintiff,

v.AMERICAN MEDIA, INC., and the National Enquirer, Inc., Defendants.

Case No. 2:12–cv–2216–TMP.

United States District Court,

N.D. Alabama,

Southern Division.

May 22, 2013.

Carolyn E. Littell Courson, Montgomery, AL, L. Linn Wood, Stacey Godfrey Evans, Wood Hernacki & Evans LLC, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiff.

Harlan I. Prater, IV, Jeffrey P. Doss, John G. Thompson, Jr., Lightfoot Franklin & White LLC, Birmingham, AL, Lee Levine, Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz LLP, Washington, DC, Rachel F. Strom, Levine Sullivan Koch & Shulz LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

T. MICHAEL PUTNAM, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter is before the court on the motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment filed by the defendants on August 17, 2012. (Doc. 16). The plaintiff has filed a response, along with a motion to stay consideration of the motion for partial summary judgment. (Doc. 24). Also pending is a motion to reconsider the court's order granting plaintiff leave to file an affidavit under seal (doc. 28) and a motion to strike the affidavit (doc. 38), also filed under seal. The motions have been fully briefed. The parties have consented to the exercise of jurisdiction by the undersigned pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c).

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The plaintiff, Elizabeth Ann Holloway, filed her complaint on June 20, 2012, alleging that the defendants, American Media, Inc., and its subsidiary, The National Enquirer, Inc., through its publication, the National Enquirer,¹ are liable to her underAlabama law for the torts of intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. The plaintiff's state-law tort claims arise from the defendants' publication of headlines, articles, and photographs in the weekly tabloid publication, the National Enquirer. The three articles at issue, published in June and December 2010 and April 2011,² purport to describe details of the death and/or burial of Natalee Holloway, plaintiff's daughter, who disappeared during a senior trip to Aruba in 2005. Despite extensive searches, criminal investigations, and intense media coverage, Natalee, who was then 18, was never found.³ The plaintiff has not yet been able to obtain conclusive proof whether her daughter is alive or dead.

The plaintiff filed the complaint commencing this action on June 20, 2012. She complains that the Enquirer published at least three articles that were knowingly false and which were intended by defendants to cause her to suffer severe emotional distress. The articles described a map that purported to show where Natalee's body was located, a “secret graveyard” where Natalee had been “buried alive,” and other details about her “murder” and the treatment of her “corpse,” including that it had been secreted temporarily in a coffin with another corpse before being moved to a final location. Plaintiff alleges that the stories, headlines, and photographs published in those three articles caused her to suffer severe emotional stress and invaded her privacy through an invasion of her emotional sanctum.

After filing an unopposed motion for extension of time in which to answer or respond to the complaint, and after the motion was granted, the Enquirer filed a motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment asserting that plaintiff's claims are due to be dismissed on the following grounds: (1) that the defendants are not liable to plaintiff on her tort claims because the published materials are “of public concern” and thus are protected by the First Amendment; (2) that the plaintiff cannot recover because the statements at issue are not “of and concerning” her and thus are protected by the First Amendment; (3) that the conduct at issue is not sufficiently “outrageous” to support a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress under Alabama law; (4) that plaintiff's extreme emotional distress was not caused by the defendants or the published materials, but by the events arising from Natalee's disappearance; and (5) that the claims relating to the June 28, 2010, publication are barred by the applicable Alabama two-year statute of limitation.⁴ In response to the Enquirer's motion, Ms. Holloway filed a response in opposition, an affidavit, and a motion to stay consideration of the motion for partial summary judgment in order to conduct discovery. The defendants have filed a motion for reconsideration of the order granting leave to file, and have filed a motion to file a response to the affidavit, also under seal, which was granted.⁵ In addition, the defendants filed a reply to the plaintiff's opposition to the motion to dismiss and for partial summary judgment, which included an opposition to the plaintiff's motion to stay. Because the motion for partial summary judgment is based solely upon the statute of limitations defense, for which adequate evidence already has been submitted, the motion to stay (doc. 24) is DENIED.

II. STANDARDS OF REVIEW

The motion presents a complex procedural posture for the case. Defendants make clear that the motion for partial summary judgment is intended to reach only plaintiff's claims arising from the June 28, 2010, publication, contending that such claims are outside the two-year limitation period. ⁶ In considering all of the claims except the claim based upon the statute of limitations, the court employs the standards governing a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. The court examines the evidence offered with respect to the motion seeking dismissal of the tort claims on the basis that they are barred by the statute of limitations in accordance with the standards governing a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment.

A. Motion to Dismiss

Because this case is before the court on a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the court must assume as true all of the “well-pleaded” facts set in the plaintiff's complaint. In Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45–46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957), the Supreme Court stated that a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears “beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim that would entitle him to relief.” “[T]he threshold of sufficiency that a complaint must meet to survive a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim is exceedingly low.” Quality Foods de Centro Am. S.A. v. Latin Am. Agribusiness Develop. Corp., 711 F.2d 989, 995 (11th Cir.1983). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a) requires only a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Liberal notice pleading standards embodied in Rule 8(a) “do not require that a plaintiff specifically plead every element of a cause of action,” Roe v. Aware Woman Ctr. for Choice, Inc., 253 F.3d 678, 683 (11th Cir.2001), or set out in precise detail the specific facts upon which she bases her claim. The complaint must only “contain either direct or inferential allegations respecting all the material elements necessary to sustain a recovery under some viable legal theory.” Id. (quoting In re Plywood Antitrust Litigation, 655 F.2d 627, 641 (5th Cir. Unit A, 1981)).

Although the court must accept the factual allegations of the complaint as true, it is not required to accept legal conclusions masquerading as facts. As one district court recently reiterated:

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) empowers the Court to grant a defendant's motion to dismiss when a complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The pleadings are construed broadly so that all well-pleaded facts are accepted as true, and all inferences are viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiff. Cooper v. Pate, 378 U.S. 546, 546, 84 S.Ct. 1733, 12 L.Ed.2d 1030 (1964); Conner v. Tate, 130 F.Supp.2d 1370, 1373 (N.D.Ga.2001). However, the court need not “accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation.” Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986).

Smith v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 422 F.Supp.2d 1310, 1324 (N.D.Ga.2006). The Supreme Court commented in 2007 on Rule 12(b)(6) dismissals, saying:

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires only “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief,” in order to “give the defendant fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests,” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, ibid.;Sanjuan v. American Bd. of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc., 40 F.3d 247, 251 (C.A.7 1994), a plaintiff's obligation to provide the “grounds” of his “entitle [ment] to relief” requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do, see Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986) (on a motion to dismiss, courts “are not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation”). Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level, see5 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1216, pp. 235–236 (3d ed. 2004) (hereinafter Wright & Miller ) (“[T]he pleading must contain something more ... than ... a statement of facts that merely creates a suspicion [of] a legally cognizable right of action”), on the assumption that all the allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact), see, e.g., Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 508, n. 1, 122 S.Ct. 992, 152 L.Ed.2d 1 (2002); Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 327, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989) (“Rule 12(b)(6) does not countenance ... dismissals based on a judge's disbelief of a complaint's factual allegations”); Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974) (a...