Nix v. Cox Enterprises, Inc., A00A0070.
| Decision Date | 09 February 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. A00A0070.,A00A0070. |
| Citation | 529 S.E.2d 426,242 Ga. App. 515 |
| Parties | NIX v. COX ENTERPRISES, INC. et al. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
529 S.E.2d 426
242 Ga. App. 515
v.
COX ENTERPRISES, INC. et al
No. A00A0070.
Court of Appeals of Georgia.
February 9, 2000.
Reconsideration Denied February 28, 2000.
Certiorari Granted June 9, 2000.
Garland, Samuel & Loeb, Edward T.M. Garland, Nelson O. Tyrone III, Atlanta, for appellant.
Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, Peter C. Canfield, Thomas M. Clyde, Atlanta, for appellees.
Franklin R. Nix, an attorney, sued Cox Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Journal, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Rochelle Bozman for libel per se in placing him in a false light by listing him in two published articles on March 9, 1998, as one of seven examples of rogue lawyers and in accusing him of attempting to solicit clients from another lawyer. The defendants placed his name immediately after the account of six lawyers charged with stealing their clients' money or convicted of felonies. The article also stated that these rogue lawyers needed policing, were crooked, inept, arrogant, dishonest, or did shoddy work. The defendants charged Nix with soliciting another lawyer's clients and, immediately after listing such examples of rogue lawyers, inserted two lines regarding litigation between Nix and another lawyer over communication with the other lawyer's client without dissociating language, so that any reader could infer that the examples and statements about rogue lawyers also referred to Nix as coming within the same description of characteristics of the rogue lawyer listed before him. The article read as follows:
Another attorney, Franklin R. Nix, was scolded publicly by Fulton Superior Court Judge Wendy L. Shoob when Nix solicited business by sending letters to disgruntled Olympic vendors urging them to drop their current attorney and bring their business to them. Nix invoked the name of defense attorney Bobby Lee Cook in the letter to convince the potential clients to jump ship, and the attorney whose clients received the letters, Louis Levenson, has sued Nix, alleging tortious interference with his contracts and defamation. Both lawsuits are pending in Fulton Superior Court.
Nix stated his complaint under three theories of liability: defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional [242 Ga. App. 516] distress. The defendants answered and filed a motion to dismiss. The defendants attached to their answer some 31 pages of exhibits: copies of the articles, a Fulton County Daily Report story about the lawsuit between Levenson and Nix, and copies of related correspondence. To the brief in support of the motion to dismiss, the defendants also attached 195 pages of articles, correspondence, the entire record of the Levenson v. Nix litigation with the other lawyer in Fulton Superior Court, as well as the transcript of the hearing in such case. Nix filed his affidavit with exhibits attached.
On July 31, 1998, the trial court entered an order dismissing plaintiff's complaint. On August 28, 1998, Nix appealed. While the trial court's order made no mention of reliance on matters outside the record, the defendants' motion and brief had as the basis of their defense that there had been an accurate reporting of what took place in the litigation in Levenson v. Nix, which could not be determined absent reference to such matters outside the pleadings.
Nix's sole enumeration of error...
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Nix v. Cox Enterprises, Inc.
...Nix appealed. The Supreme Court of Georgia in Cox Enterprises v. Nix, 273 Ga. 152, 538 S.E.2d 449 (2000) reversed Nix v. Cox Enterprises, 242 Ga.App. 515, 529 S.E.2d 426 (2000) and held that, by not objecting and by filing his affidavit and evidence in opposition to Cox Enterprises' motion ......
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Hendon Properties v. Cinema Development, No. A05A1452.
...principles. Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part. ANDREWS, P.J., and MIKELL, J., concur. 1. See Nix v. Cox Enterprises, 242 Ga.App. 515, 516, 529 S.E.2d 426 (2000), rev'd on other grounds, Cox Enterprises v. Nix, 274 Ga. 801, 560 S.E.2d 650 (2002). 2. Bakhtiarnejad v. Cox Enterpri......
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Cox Enterprises, Inc. v. Nix
...pleadings without first giving Nix notice that Defendants' motion would be treated as one for summary judgment. Nix v. Cox Enterprises, 242 Ga.App. 515, 529 S.E.2d 426 (2000). The Court of Appeals directed the trial court to reconsider the motion to dismiss and, if matters outside the plead......
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Smith v. Germania of America
...in regard to the state law claims, thereby failing to follow the standard for granting a motion to dismiss. See Nix v. Cox Enterprises, 242 Ga.App. 515, 517, 529 S.E.2d 426, rev'd on other grounds, 273 Ga. 152, 538 S.E.2d 449 (2000). The Germania defendants' answer denied the allegations th......