Khawar v. Globe Internat., Inc.
| Decision Date | 05 June 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. B084899,B084899 |
| Citation | 54 Cal.Rptr.2d 92,46 Cal.App.4th 11 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Previously published at 46 Cal.App.4th 11, 51 Cal.App.4th 14 46 Cal.App.4th 11, 51 Cal.App.4th 14, 24 Media L. Rep. 2345, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 4054, 96 Daily Journal D.A.R. 6549 Khalid KHAWAR, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. GLOBE INTERNATIONAL, INC., Defendant and Appellant. Ali AHMAD, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. GLOBE INTERNATIONAL, INC., Defendant and Respondent. |
Glassman & Browning, Inc. and Anthony Michael Glassman, Barbara Tarlow and Lori A. Nielsen, Beverly Hills, for Defendant, Appellant and Respondent Globe International, Inc.
Francis C.J. Pizzulli, Santa Monica, for Plaintiff and Appellant Ali Ahmad and for Plaintiff and Respondent Khalid Khawar.
Davis Wright Tremaine, Kelli L. Sager, Los Angeles, Bruce E.H. Johnson, Seattle, WA, and Debora K. Kristensen, Boise, ID, for Amici Curiae Los Angeles Times, McClatchy Newspapers, Inc., CBS Inc., The Copley Press, Inc., National Broadcasting Company, Inc., Radio-Television News Directors Association, and California Newspaper Publishers Association.
William A. Niese, Los Angeles, and Karlene W. Goller, Laguna Beach, for Amicus Curiae Los Angeles Times.
Debra Foust Bruns, Sacramento, for Amicus Curiae McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
Susan Holliday, Beth A. Finley, Los Angeles, and Sandra Williams, Irvine, for Amicus Curiae CBS Inc.
Harold W. Fuson, Jr., La Jolla, for Amicus Curiae The Copley Press, Inc.
Anne H. Egerton and Andrea Hartman, Burbank, for Amicus Curiae National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
Reed Smith Shaw & McClay and J. Laurent Scharff, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae Radio-Television News Directors Association.
Thomas W. Newton, Northridge, for Amicus Curiae California Newspaper Publishers Association.
Pillsbury Madison & Sutro and Walter R. Allan, Edward P. Davis, Jr., San Francisco and James M. Chadwick, San Jose and Bernard Zimmerman, San Francisco, for Amici Curiae The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, The ACLU Foundation of Southern California, The Chronicle Publishing Company, The Daily Journal Corporation, Lesher Communications, Inc., The Recorder, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the San Jose Mercury News, Inc.
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In the April 4, 1989 issue of its tabloid The Globe, defendant Globe International, Inc. ("Globe") published an article headlined "Former CIA agent claims: IRANIANS KILLED BOBBY KENNEDY FOR THE MAFIA." The article was the subject of the following reference on the front page of the issue: "Iranian secret police killed Bobby Kennedy." The article was written by John Blackburn, a reporter who had worked for Globe as an employee and a free-lance reporter for nearly five years. The article reported on a previously published book entitled The Senator Must Die: The Murder of Robert F. Kennedy, written by Robert Morrow and published in November 1988 by Roundtable Publishing. Robert Morrow is a conspiracy theorist who has also written a book about the assassination of John F. Kennedy entitled Betrayal, published in 1976. As background for the article, Blackburn allegedly read Morrow's entire book and conducted an in-depth interview of the author.
The theory set forth by Morrow in The Senator Must Die is that Robert Kennedy was assassinated by the Iranian Secret Police working in conjunction with the Mafia, and that the true assassin was not Sirhan Sirhan, but a man who called himself Ali Ahmand. The book contained four photographs which appeared beneath the caption, "Photographs of Ali Ahmand." These photos depicted Plaintiff Khalid Iqbal Khawar standing on the podium near Robert Kennedy on the night of the assassination in June of 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Plaintiff Ali Ahmad is in fact the father of respondent Khawar.
In 1968, Khawar, who at the time was a citizen of Pakistan, obtained a position as a free-lance photojournalist for a Pakistani periodical during the presidential election campaign of 1968. On the night of the assassination Khawar was photographed on the podium near Senator Kennedy, but he never actually entered the pantry area of the hotel where the fatal shots were fired. After the assassination, Khawar was involved in the investigations of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as one of many participants in the campaign event. A few authors have posed questions as to Khawar's activities on June 4, 1968, including Morrow as well as Robert Blair Kaiser in his book RFK Must Die, published in 1970. Nevertheless, no official questions have ever been raised concerning Khawar's activities during any phase of his work on the campaign.
The April 1989 article in The Globe was accompanied by a photo of Khawar which had previously been published in Morrow's book. Globe added an arrow which pointed to Khawar. Following its publication Khawar received a telephone call from one of his ex-employees, informing him of the story. He received calls regarding the article from places as distant as New Jersey and Bangkok. He and his children received death threats. His house was vandalized, as was his son's car.
On August 31, 1989, Khawar filed suit against Globe, Roundtable and Morrow, alleging that the Globe article and Morrow's book had defamed him. Ahmad filed a defamation suit against the same defendants on November 29, 1989. On September 16, 1991, the two actions were consolidated.
Before trial, both Khawar and Ahmad settled with Roundtable and Morrow's default was entered. Khawar and Ahmad sought a judgment against Morrow for two million dollars. A jury trial ensued on the claims of Khawar and Ahmad against Globe. However, pursuant to the trial court's power as specified in Code of Civil Procedure Section 592, on two issues the jury's verdict was to be advisory only: (1) Whether Khawar was a public or a private figure, and (2) whether Globe's article was a "neutral report" concerning Morrow's book. At the end of the plaintiffs' case on March 17, 1994, the trial court granted Globe's motion for a nonsuit with respect to Ahmad on the ground that the Globe article was not "of and concerning" Ahmad.
At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found that: (1) The article was a neutral and accurate report of the statements made by Morrow in his book; (2) Khawar was a private figure; (3) Globe published its article negligently and either knowing that the defamatory statements were false or with reckless disregard of whether the defamatory statements were true or false; and (4) Globe published the article with malice or oppression. The jury assessed damages in favor of Khawar against Globe as follows: $100,000 for harm to Khawar's reputation; $400,000 for emotional distress; and $175,000 in presumed damages. Following a separate punitive damage phase, the jury awarded an additional $500,000 in punitive damages.
The trial judge disagreed with the jury's finding that the article was a neutral and accurate report but allowed the jury's finding that Khawar was a private figure to stand. A judgment in favor of Khawar and against Globe for $1,175,000 as found by the jury was entered on April 15, 1994. 1
Globe filed a timely notice of appeal from the April 15, 1994 judgment in favor of Khawar. Ahmad filed a notice of appeal from the April 15, 1994 judgment also, but that judgment contained no provisions concerning Ahmad. (While a minute order noting the granting of Globe's motion for directed verdict against Ahmad was created when that motion was granted on March 17, 1994, the impact of the granting of that motion was not embodied in any judgment entered prior to the filing of Ahmad's notice of appeal.) On April 3, 1996, the April 15, 1994 judgment was amended nunc pro tunc as of April 15, 1994 to add: "Plaintiff Ali Ahmad shall have and recover nothing from defendant Globe International, Inc."--thereby curing the defect in Ahmad's notice of appeal.
Globe contends that this Court should reverse the judgment below for the following reasons: (1) Khawar should be classified as a public figure, thereby allowing the Globe article to be privileged under the doctrine of neutral reportage; (2) The trial court exceeded its authority by disregarding the jury's finding of a neutral and accurate report; (3) There was no evidence to support a finding that Globe published its article with malice or reckless disregard; (4) Even if Khawar is labeled a private figure, the jury's finding of a neutral and accurate report precludes a finding of negligence; (5) Permitting the so-called scientific testimony of Gavin De Becker constituted reversible error; and (6) The submission of numerous jury instructions left the jury without proper guidance and completely confused. After an independent examination of the entire record, we find no merit in any of these contentions and consequently affirm the judgment as against Globe.
The only contention asserted by Ahmad on appeal is that the trial court's granting of Globe's motion for a nonsuit on the ground that the article was not "of and concerning" Ahmad was improper. Again, following our independent examination of the entire record, we reject Ahmad's contention and affirm the judgment as against Ahmad.
It is truly hornbook law that "[with an exception not here relevant,] one who repeats or otherwise republishes defamatory matter is subject to liability as if he had originally published it." (Rest. Torts 2d, Section 578.) California has recognized this principle for exactly 100 years:
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Khawar v. Globe Intern., Inc.
...v. GLOBE INTERNATIONAL, INCORPORATED, Appellant. No. S054868. Supreme Court of California. Sept. 25, 1996. Prior report: Cal.App., 54 Cal.Rptr.2d 92. Petition for review MOSK, KENNARD, CHIN and BROWN, JJ., concur. ...