Karaduman v. Newsday, Inc.

• Decision Date: 25 November 1980
• Citation: 51 N.Y.2d 531,416 N.E.2d 557,435 N.Y.S.2d 556
• Parties: , 416 N.E.2d 557, 6 Media L. Rep. 2345 Mahmut KARADUMAN, Respondent, v. NEWSDAY, INC., et al., Appellants.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 556

435 N.Y.S.2d 556

51 N.Y.2d 531, 416 N.E.2d 557, 6

Media L. Rep. 2345

Mahmut KARADUMAN, Respondent, v. NEWSDAY, INC., et al., Appellants.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Nov. 25, 1980.

Andrew L. Hughes, Nina Shreve and Mitchell R. Berger, New York City, for appellants.

Thomas R. Newman, Mark L. Rosen and Leon Segan, New York City, for respondent.

OPINION OF THE COURT

GABRIELLI, Judge.

In the instant libel action, we are called upon to consider a number of novel and interesting questions regarding the liability of the various actors who, it is claimed, participated in their respective capacities in the republication in book form of an allegedly false and defamatory series of newspaper articles.

Between February 1 and March 4, 1973, Newsday, a widely circulated Long Island newspaper, published a series of articles entitled "The Heroin Trail" tracing the primary supply routes of the narcotics trade from its origins in Asia and Europe to its ultimate destination in the United States. The series of articles, which was primarily the product of a 13-month investigation conducted by a three-man team of Newsday reporters, received a great deal of public acclaim and was eventually awarded a Pulitzer Prize as "a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper". Although more than 300 individuals were named in the articles as participants in the international heroin smuggling trade, there is no indication that Newsday was ever called upon to respond to charges of defamation as a result of its publication of the series.

In June of 1974, the New American Library (NAL) republished "The Heroin Trail" in book form pursuant to its March 11, 1973 agreement with Newsday. Under this agreement, one Donald Forst, who had worked on the series in his capacity as a managing editor for Newsday, was "loaned" to NAL to assist that organization in its preparation of the book.

On or about April 10, 1975, following the publication of the book, plaintiff commenced the instant libel action, naming as defendants, Newsday, NAL, Forst and the three investigative reporters who had authored the original series of articles. Plaintiff, a Turkish national who had been named in "The Heroin Trail" as a specialist "in smuggling by the Black Sea route", alleged that the printed accusation against him was false and that his reputation as a legitimate businessman in his homeland had been grievously injured as a result of the defamatory statements about him.

Plaintiff's first cause of action, which was based solely upon the original publication of the accusation in Newsday, was promptly dismissed on the ground that it was time-barred under the applicable Statute of Limitations (CPLR 215, subd. 3). No appeal from this ruling was perfected, and its correctness is not disputed in the present appeal. The second and third causes of action, which were predicated exclusively upon the republication of the accusation in book form, however, were treated as timely, and, consequently, plaintiff was afforded a full opportunity to depose defendants in an effort to obtain evidence to support his claim.

Following the completion of these discovery procedures, all six named defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing that plaintiff had failed to adduce evidence sufficient to defeat their qualified privilege as journalists under the standards articulated in Chapadeau v. Utica Observer-Dispatch (38 N.Y.2d 196, 379 N.Y.S.2d 61, 341 N.E.2d 569). In support of their motion, defendants submitted a number of affidavits by those involved in the research and publication of "The Heroin Trail" detailing the elaborate procedures that had been followed internally in an effort to ensure the accuracy of the story. The affidavits submitted by the three reporters indicated, in addition, that the information concerning plaintiff's participation in the heroin smuggling industry was derived from their personal contact with several sources, including one Galip Labernas, a retired inspector in charge of the Turkish State Narcotics Organization in northern Turkey and Istanbul, one Omer Aygun, Chief of the Homicide Squad for the Istanbul Police, and one Orhan Erbug, Director General of the Turkish National Police. ¹ Finally, the three reporters Plaintiff vigorously opposed the motion for summary judgment, submitting in support of his position three affidavits by Labernas, Aygun and Erbug, respectively, in which each denied having made any disparaging comments about plaintiff concerning his purported involvement in the international heroin trade. Indeed, all three stated that plaintiff was a well-respected Turkish businessman of excellent local repute. Relying primarily upon these affidavits, plaintiff argued that there existed a triable question of fact as to whether defendants had acted in a "grossly irresponsible" manner in republishing the accusations against him in the 1974 NAL edition of "The Heroin Trail" and that, consequently, summary judgment should not be granted.

also asserted in their affidavits that their participation in the production of the newspaper series had come to an end with the publication of "The Heroin Trail" in Newsday and that they had not been involved in any way in the republication of the series in book form by NAL. Accordingly, they argued, they could not be held liable for any injury to plaintiff, if such there be, arising from NAL's separate acts in republishing the series.

Special Term ruled in favor of defendants and dismissed the complaint, finding that "(t)he widespread praise accorded the publication of the original newspaper articles and the absence of any legal action after such publication is sufficient to disprove a claim of gross irresponsibility". The Appellate Division, 71 A.D.2d 411, 422 N.Y.S.2d 426, reversed and reinstated plaintiff's second and third causes of action against the six defendants, reasoning that the existing evidence raised sufficient doubt concerning defendants' "good faith" in republishing the accusations to warrant a full trial of plaintiff's allegations. For reasons that follow, we now unanimously reverse the order of the Appellate Division insofar as it reinstated the causes of action against Forst, NAL and the three Newsday reporters and hold that summary judgment in favor of each of these five defendants was properly granted at Special Term. In addition, three of the members of our court are of the opinion that the causes of action asserted against defendant Newsday also should be dismissed. Our reasons follow.

Preliminarily, we note that there is no dispute in the present appeal regarding the proper standard to be applied in determining defendants' liability for the allegedly defamatory statements. Although plaintiff is a "private" individual, the subject matter of the articles in issue is unquestionably a matter "within the sphere of legitimate public concern" (Chapadeau v. Utica Observer-Dispatch, 38 N.Y.2d 196, 199, 379 N.Y.S.2d 61, 341 N.E.2d 569, supra ). Accordingly, the statements, even if false, cannot lead to liability unless it is proven by a fair preponderance of the evidence that its publishers "acted in a grossly irresponsible manner without due consideration for the standards of information gathering and dissemination ordinarily followed by responsible parties" (id. at p. 199, 379 N.Y.S.2d 61, 341 N.E.2d 569). As a matter of equal importance, it must be stressed that defendants may be held answerable in libel in the instant case only if their conduct is found to be "grossly irresponsible" in relation to the 1974 republication of "The Heroin Trail" in book form. Any injury which defendants may have caused plaintiff as a direct result of their participation in the original publication of the articles by Newsday is now beyond judicial remedy, since plaintiff failed to institute suit on the basis of such injury within the one-year period prescribed in CPLR 215 (subd. 3). Additionally, it is well established as a matter of substantive law that the five defendants who actually were responsible for the initial publication of "The Heroin Trail" in serial form cannot be held personally liable With these principles in mind, we turn our attention to the specific questions of liability presented in the instant appeal.

for injuries arising from its subsequent republication in book form absent a showing that they approved or participated in some other manner in the activities of the third-party republisher. This is so because the law of our State does not render the original publisher of a defamatory statement automatically liable for subsequent republications of the statement by others. (Macy v. New York World-Tel. Corp., 2 N.Y.2d 416, 422, 161 N.Y.S.2d 55, 141 N.E.2d 566; Raines v. New York Press Co., 92 Hun. 515; see 1 Seelman, The Law of Libel and Slander in the State of New York, par. 149, p. 187; 35 N.Y. Jur., Libel and Slander, § 156, pp. 66-67).

I

In his pleadings, plaintiff purported to assert a separate cause of action against the three Newsday reporters who authored the original version of "The Heroin Trail" on the basis of their alleged involvement in the republication of that series by NAL in book form. Upon defendants' motion for summary judgment, however, plaintiff failed to produce any evidence whatsoever to support his allegation that the reporters "published, participated in, authored (or) permitted" the publication of the book. Notably, the motion for summary judgment was made only after plaintiff was given a full opportunity to depose defendants and to discover any additional information which defendants might possess that would tend to support his claim against the reporters.

Inasmuch as the record is barren of any concrete evidence of the reporters' involvement in the republication of the newspaper series, we conclude that the causes of action against them must be dismissed. Even if we assume, as we must upon this motion for summary judgment (see Glick &...