Muzikowski v. Paramount Pictures Corp.
| Decision Date | 06 March 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-4314.,01-4314. |
| Citation | 322 F.3d 918 |
| Parties | Robert E. MUZIKOWSKI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION, SFX Tollin Robbins Incorporated, and Fireworks Pictures, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Robert E. Muzikowski (Argued), Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Debbie L. Berman (Argued), Jenner & Block, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before RIPPLE, DIANE P. WOOD, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.
Robert Muzikowski has devoted years of his life to coaching Little League Baseball teams in economically depressed areas of Chicago—an activity for which he deserves great credit. His commitment eventually attracted national attention, which led to a book about the 1992 season of the league Muzikowski co-founded, and later to a movie produced by defendant Paramount Pictures entitled Hardball, which was based on the book. Muzikowski regarded the movie as defamatory, on the theory that one particular character easily identifiable as himself (played by Keanu Reeves) was portrayed in a negative way, and that this amounted to disseminating falsehoods about him and about his league. The district court granted Paramount's motion to dismiss the complaint. In so doing, however, it relied not only on Illinois substantive law (which was proper), but also on Illinois pleading rules (which was not). We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings.
Since 1991, Muzikowski, a licensed securities broker and insurance salesman, has been active in founding and coaching inner-city Little League Baseball programs, including the Near North Little League (NNLL) (centered in Chicago's Cabrini-Green area) and the Near West Little League (NWLL), which Muzikowski founded in 1995 for children living on the near west side. Especially at the time, both these neighborhoods were among Chicago's poorest. Muzikowski and his work have been featured nationally on programs such as ABC's Nightline.
In 1991, author Daniel Coyle volunteered to coach with the NNLL. The next season, 1992, Coyle took a leave of absence from his job as an editor at Outside magazine so that he could continue his work as an assistant coach of one of Near North's teams and at the same time write a book about the experience. The end result was Hardball: A Season in the Projects, which G.P. Putnam's Sons published in 1994. The book, which bills itself as a work of non-fiction, focuses primarily on the children Coyle coached, although it also devotes some attention to the coaches. Prominent among those coaches is Muzikowski; sprinkled throughout the book are passages mentioning Muzikowski and various personal details about Muzikowski's life. Paramount acquired the motion picture rights to Coyle's book in 1993 and seven years later produced the movie Hardball, which tells the story of a coach named Conor O'Neill. No character in the movie is named Robert or Muzikowski and there are no references to Little League Baseball. The credits of Hardball state, "While this motion picture is in part inspired by actual events, persons and organizations, this is a fictitious story and no actual persons, events or organizations have been portrayed."
Despite this disclaimer, Muzikowski contends that O'Neill is in fact a portrayal of him. He focuses on numerous facts revealed in Coyle's book about his own life. After his father died, Muzikowski dropped out of college for lack of funds. He later became an alcoholic and illegal drug user. One night Muzikowski was arrested for his involvement in a bar fight, which left a permanent scar on his hand. After being bailed out, Muzikowski began to turn his life around. Later, he became active in Little League. As a coach, Muzikowski drove a blue station wagon, made frequent use of profanity, and sometimes "los[t] it." On one occasion, Muzikowski learned that one of his players had been killed in a gang-related shooting. He later spoke at the boy's funeral.
The O'Neill character in the movie version of Hardball experiences almost exactly the same things as the real Muzikowski. The only differences, in Muzikowski's opinion, are unflattering and false as applied to the real man. O'Neill never breaks his drinking habit, while Muzikowski has not taken a drink for 17 years. O'Neill, unlike Muzikowski, scalps tickets and gambles. He commits such crimes as battery, theft, criminal destruction of property, disorderly conduct, and drinking on the public way. From a professional standpoint, O'Neill falsely represents himself as a broker, even though he has no license. O'Neill uses his father's death to deceive others into giving him money, and he is portrayed as having no interest in children or their well-being in contrast to Muzikowski's deep commitment to young people. In fact, Muzikowski became involved in Little League solely out of that genuine concern for children, while the O'Neill character does so only to pay off a gambling debt.
In the spring of 2000, Paramount announced to the public that it was going to make the movie Hardball. It issued press releases and other information describing the movie generally. Around the same time, Muzikowski began getting telephone calls from all over the country from friends and acquaintances telling him that Paramount was about to make a movie about him. Paramount's publicity continued throughout the year; it made it clear that Hardball was to be based on Coyle's book and that it was about an inner-city baseball team based on a team located in the Cabrini-Green housing projects. At least one news story about the up-coming film mentioned Muzikowski by name: an October 26, 2000, article prepared by the Associated Press said that Keanu Reeves "plays Bob Muzikowski, a former addict turned devout Christian, who coaches a Little League baseball team." Most of the other advance publicity also emphasized the fact that the movie was based on the true account found in Coyle's book.
Although a preview copy of Hardball was released in January 2001, and reviews based on that exhibition were disseminated around the country, the formal date of release was set for September of that year. On May 10, 2001, Muzikowski filed a complaint in the Central District of California invoking the court's diversity jurisdiction and alleging libel and various other claims. Three months later, Muzikowski sought a preliminary injunction to prevent Hardball's release. On August 24 Muzikowski voluntarily dismissed the California action and filed this suit in the Northern District of Illinois, asserting claims of defamation and false light invasion of privacy under Illinois law. Muzikowski also moved for a temporary restraining order to prevent release of the film, which the district court denied. The film thus found its way into the theaters as scheduled. On November 28, 2001, the district court granted Paramount's motion to dismiss based on FED. R. CIV. P. 12(b)(6).
Before we discuss the merits, we must consider an issue of appellate jurisdiction. The district court dismissed Muzikowski's claims without prejudice and "in the usual case, such a dismissal does not qualify as an appealable final judgment because the plaintiff is free to re-file the case." Larkin v. Galloway, 266 F.3d 718, 721 (7th Cir.2001). An appeal is possible, however, if there is no amendment Muzikowski could reasonably be expected to offer to save the complaint, or if a new suit would be barred by the statute of limitations. Id.
We are satisfied that Muzikowski cannot amend and re-file his complaint. In the first place, at this point any new claim would be barred by the statute of limitations. A dismissal without prejudice is treated for statute of limitations purposes as if suit had never been filed. Elmore v. Henderson, 227 F.3d 1009, 1011 (7th Cir.2000). Illinois imposes a one-year statute of limitations on all defamation actions that begins to run when the defamatory statement was published. Buechele v. St. Mary's Hosp., 156 Ill.App.3d 637, 109 Ill.Dec. 83, 509 N.E.2d 744, 745-46 (Ill. App.Ct.1987). Therefore, any claim Muzikowski may have had expired no later than September 14, 2002, one year after Paramount released Hardball.
Furthermore, the district court itself recognized that Muzikowski might be able to amend the complaint in some cases to itemize his damages more specifically, but Muzikowski stated on the record that he wished to forego that opportunity and bring an immediate appeal. This is akin to a voluntary dismissal of his claims. While a party cannot normally bring an appeal after a voluntary dismissal of some claims, see, e.g., West v. Macht, 197 F.3d 1185, 1187-88 (7th Cir.1999), in this case Muzikowski had already voluntarily dismissed his complaint once before in the Central District of California. Therefore, this second dismissal "operates as an adjudication upon the merits." FED. R. CIV. P. 41(a)(1). From that point of view as well, it is a final judgment from which Muzikowski may appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
We also must address one other procedural issue. Muzikowski is proceeding on appeal pro se and purports to represent both himself and the NWLL. However, Muzikowski cannot represent the NWLL because he is not a lawyer. Nor can the NWLL, a non-profit corporation, represent itself pro se. Rowland v. California Men's Colony, 506 U.S. 194, 201-02, 113 S.Ct. 716, 121 L.Ed.2d 656 (1993). Because NWLL has not appeared by counsel, we dismiss it as a party to this appeal. Mendenhall v. Goldsmith, 59 F.3d 685, 687 n. 1 (7th Cir.1995).
The parties agree that Illinois law applies to the substance of Muzikowski's claim, and so (to the extent it is pertinent) we will confine our discussion accordingly. A defamatory statement is one that "tends to cause such harm to the reputation of another that it lowers that...
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