Matson v. Margiotti

• Decision Date: 27 May 1952
• Docket Number: 7734
• Citation: 88 A.2d 892,371 Pa. 188
• Parties: MATSON v. MARGIOTTI.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

88 A.2d 892

371 Pa. 188

MATSON v. MARGIOTTI.

No. 7734

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

May 27, 1952

Argued March 25, 1952

Appeal, No. 6, March T., 1952, from judgment of Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, April T., 1951, No. 319, in case of Marjorie Hanson Matson v. Charles J. Margiotti. Judgment affirmed.

Trespass for libel.

Defendant's preliminary objections sustained, before MARSHALL, MUSMANNO and MONTGOMERY, JJ., opinion by MARSHALL, J., concurring opinion by MONT-GOMERY, J. Plaintiff appealed.

Judgment affirmed.

Marjorie Hanson Matson , appellant, in propria persona.

Robert L. Kunzig , Deputy Attorney General, with him Robert E. Woodside , Attorney General and Margiotti &amp Casey , for appellee.

Before DREW, C.J., STEARNE, JONES, BELL and CHIDSEY, JJ.

OPINION

MR. JUSTICE BELL

Plaintiff filed a complaint in libel, the basis of her action being a letter written by Charles J. Margiotti as Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to William S. Rahauser, District Attorney of Allegheny County. This letter was written upon the official stationery of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, the heading on said letter being, "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of the Attorney General, Harrisburg." The letter follows:

"January 5, 1951.

"William S. Rahauser, Esquire, District Attorney of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dear Bill:

As a result of an investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police, I have ascertained the following facts with regard to Majory Hanson Matson, an assistant district attorney on your staff:

1. While Mrs. Matson was a student at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, she had the reputation among her fellow-students of having Communistic tendencies. I am reliably informed that she attended school at the Young Communist League and that she was one of the principal demonstrators against General MacArthur when he came to Pittsburgh to deliver the commencement address at the University of Pittsburgh in 1932.

2. I am informed that Mrs. Matson is on the Executive Board of American-Soviet Friendship and was one of the organizers of the Progressive Citizens Party, which is now the Progressive Party, and which as you may recall was the organization which undertook to force the Board of Public Education of the City of Pittsburgh to permit it to use a high school auditorium for its meeting. This matter was litigated in the United States District Court in Pittsburgh, and in its opinion the Court stated that the Progressive Party was a Communist Organization . ^[*]

3. There is no doubt that Mrs. Matson undertook to act as Counsel for Bernard Salis in the County Court on an appeal from a conviction of Salis for violation of a McKeesport ordinance forbidding the passing out of literature without a permit. The literature which Salis was distributing was signed by the Communist Party of Western Pennsylvania. Mrs. Matson was requested to withdraw from the case by you. She claims she was representing the American Civil Liberties Union in appearing on behalf of Salis.

4. I am also informed that Mrs. Matson sat in the courtroom with counsel, who was defending Nathan Alberts in the Highland Park Riot Case. Alberts is Secretary of the Pittsburgh Branch of the Communist Party and was convicted of inciting to riot; and recently his conviction was sustained by the Superior Court. My information is that Judge MONTGOMERY spoke to you with reference to this conduct of Mrs. Matson and she was then requested to leave the courtroom.

5. In the Post Cazette of August 6, 1948, the following appears:

'The Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, in a letter to President Truman, has protested prosecution of 12 leading Communists "for holding beliefs and opinions rather than committing over acts." "Even in a period of near-hysteria, which this admittedly is, no restrictions should be placed upon the competition of ideas in the market-place of public opinion," Mrs. Marjorie Hanson Matson wrote the President. Mrs. Matson, local ACLU representative and an assistant district attorney, was careful to point out that her organization bars Communists, Bundists and other supporters of dictatorships from serving in its high offices.'

6. Mrs. Matson has been associated with the following activities:

American-Soviet Friendship

Executive Board Progressive Citizens Party

Women's Organizer Principal Speaker in Grant Street Rally

Duquesne Light Strike

Closely associated with Bryngold Havde & Dr. Marion Hathaway.

We have other information with regards to Mrs. Matson's communistic activities .

Some of these matters have already been brought to your attention. As Attorney General and head of the Department of Justice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania I am writing this letter to demand that Mrs. Matson be dismissed from her position as Assistant District Attorney in Allegheny County, as it appears obvious that her Communistic associations render her unfit to hold this position. Her future retention obstructs justice and becomes dangerous to the security of our people in Pennsylvania.

I am making this demand on the basis of information furnished me by the Pennsylvania State Police.

Sincerely yours, (signed) Charles J. Margiotti, Attorney General."

The complaint averred that the statements were false and were made by the defendant wickedly and maliciously; and that the libelous communication was released to the newspapers. Plaintiff also claimed special damages.

Defendant filed preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer in which he claimed immunity or absolute privilege by reason of the fact that the letter was an official act of the Attorney General in a matter within his jurisdiction, and consequently did not constitute actionable libel. Defendant also averred that the statements set forth in the letter were not libelous per se. Plaintiff appealed from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County sustaining defendant's preliminary objections.

We shall first dispose of defendant's contention that the statements in question were not libelous per se.

Courts have at long last taken judicial notice of the fact that Communism is a political movement which is dedicated to the overthrow of the government of the United States and incidentally of each state, by force and violence: Com. v. Truitt , 369 Pa. 72, 81, 91, 85 A.2d 425; Milasignovich v. Serbian Progressive Club, Inc., 369 Pa. 26, 84 A.2d 571; Dennis v. United States , 341 U.S. 494. We are therefore unanimously of the opinion that the statements contained in the Attorney General's letter regarding Mrs. Matson's communistic activities and her membership in a communist organization, which he alleged rendered her unfit to hold her position as Assistant District Attorney, and dangerous to the security of the people of Pennsylvania, are libelous per se.

The defendant would nevertheless have two possible defenses: (a) Truth (Press Co. v. Stewart , 119 Pa. 584, 14 A. 51; Oles v. Pittsburg Times , 2 Pa.Super. 130; Kilian v. Doubleday & Co., Inc., 367 Pa. 117, 79 A.2d 657) and (b) Privilege. He did not plead "truth", and his counsel stated at the bar of the Court that a committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association had cleared Mrs. Matson of any charge of Communism.

Privilege has been divided into two kinds, (1) absolute or unlimited, and (2) conditional or limited.

Defendant contends he is entitled to "absolute privilege" and hence absolute immunity from civil suit. Absolute privilege , as its name implies, is unlimited, and exempts a high public official from all civil suits for damages arising out of false defamatory statements and even from statements or actions motivated by malice, provided the statements are made or the actions are taken in the course of the official's duties or powers and within the scope of his authority, or as it sometimes expressed, within his jurisdiction: Spaulding v. Vilas , 161 U.S. 483; Jones v. Kennedy, 121 F.2d 40; Standard Nut Margarine Co. v. Mellon , 72 F.2d 557; DeArnaud v. Ainsworth , 24 App. D.C. 167; Farr v. Valentine , 38 App. D.C. 413; Yaselli v. Goff , 12 F.2d 396, Aff. Per Curiam 275 U.S. 503; Mellon v. Brewer , 18 F.2d 168 (C.C.D.C.); Springfield v. Carter , 175 F.2d 914 (C.C.A. 8); Gibson v. Reynolds , 172 F.2d 95 (C.C.A. 8); Adams v. Home Owners' Loan Corp., 107 F.2d 139 (C.C.A. 8); Phelps v. Dawson, 97 F.2d 339 (C.C.A. 8); Adams v. Home Owners' Loan Corp., 107 F. Gregoire v. Biddle et al ., 177 F.2d 579; Glass v. Ickes , 117 F.2d 273; Restatement, Torts, § 591, p. 238; 53 C.J.S. Libel and Slander, §§ 99, 100 and 103, pages 157, 158, 166.

In the leading case of Spaulding v. Vilas, 161 U.S. 483 plaintiff sued a Postmaster General for maliciously representing plaintiff as a common swindler, causing him to lose several thousand clients and otherwise disgracing him. Plaintiff secured several thousand powers of attorney from United States Postmasters and alleged that he caused to be introduced a bill in Congress for payment of certain claims; that the Postmaster General, after the passage of the bill, endeavored to obtain legislation by Congress to destroy plaintiff's contracts of employment; that the Postmaster General, in order to further harass plaintiff and with malicious intent, sent, with the payment checks to plaintiff's clients, a letter stating that no attorney's services were necessary and that any power of attorney to collect payments for them was null and void. The plaintiff was undoubtedly seriously damaged both financially and with respect to his reputation. The Supreme Court held that this declaration did not state a valid cause of action because the United States Postmaster General was entitled to absolute...