Phillips v. Consol. Publ'g Co., CIVIL ACTION NO.: CV213-069
| Decision Date | 14 September 2015 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO.: CV213-069 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia |
| Parties | EUGENE DEBBS PHILLIPS, III, Plaintiff, v. CONSOLIDATED PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.; and JASON BACAJ, Defendants. |
Plaintiff Eugene Debbs Phillips, III filed this pro se action after his psychiatric information appeared in an article written by Defendant Jason Bacaj ("Bacaj") and was published in a newspaper owned by Defendant Consolidated Publishing Company, Inc. ("Consolidated"). This matter comes before the Court on several fully briefed motions: Plaintiff's Motion to Reverse/Correct the Magistrate Judge's Order and Motion to Enjoin the Action at "Law" (dkt. no. 184), Plaintiff's Rule 60 Motion to Reverse Dismissal of Defendants (dkt. no. 175-3), Plaintiff's Motion to Stay Proceedings (dkt. no. 177), and Defendants' Motionfor Sanctions (dkt. no. 180).1 Also before the Court are the parties' cross motions for summary judgment (dkt. nos. 163, 166).
For the reasons set forth below, Plaintiff's Motion to Reverse/Correct the Magistrate Judge's Order (dkt. no. 184) serves as Objections, and those Objections are OVERRULED.2 Plaintiff's Motion to Enjoin the Action at "Law" (dkt. no. 184), Rule 60 Motion to Reverse Dismissal of Defendants (dkt. no. 175-3), and Motion to Stay Proceedings (dkt. no. 177) are DENIED. Defendants' Motion for Sanctions (dkt. no. 180) also is DENIED. Finally, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (dkt. no. 163) is GRANTED on all claims, and Plaintiff's Cross Motion for Summary Judgment (dkt. no. 166) is DENIED in its entirety.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
In 2008, Plaintiff proposed a plan to form the Northeast Alabama Gas District ("Gas District"), which came into fruition with Plaintiff as managing director. Dkt. No. 163-3 ("BacajAff."), pp. 4-5. The Gas District was comprised of two municipalities-Talladega Springs, Alabama, and Edwardsville, Alabama—and allowed for the small towns to earn a portion of the natural gas royalties in the area. Id. at p. 5. Additionally, sometime before September 2010, Plaintiff helped create the Edwardsville Town Planning Commission ("Planning Commission"). Id. at p. 2; Dkt. No. 176, p. 7. The Planning Commission consisted of nine members including Plaintiff, and Plaintiff's name appeared on most of the Planning Commission's founding documents. Bacaj Aff., p. 2. The primary undertaking of the Planning Commission was to annex nineteen tracts of land, which comprised about seventy-five percent of Cleburne County, where Edwardsville is located. Id.; Dkt. No. 176, p. 7.
In September 2010, Defendant Bacaj began working for the Anniston Star. Bacaj Aff., p. 2. The Anniston Star is a newspaper of general circulation in Anniston, Alabama, and is owned by Defendant Consolidated. Dkt. No. 163-1, p. 1 (citing Dkt. No. 163-2, p. 2). Defendant Bacaj was the Anniston Star's general assignment reporter for the counties of Clay, Cleburne, and Randolph, Alabama. Bacaj Aff., p. 2.
In late September 2010, Defendant Bacaj learned that approximately 300 people in Cleburne County had attended a meeting of the Planning Commission to "protest[ ] the commission's very existence." Id. Defendant Bacaj spoke withthe Cleburne County citizens, who were "upset with the annexation" and expressed "great concern" over whether the Planning Commission had authority to annex the land and whether the annexed areas would be taxed. Id. at p. 3. The citizens were also concerned about the consequences if the Planning Commission were to dissolve, as its founding documents provided that dissolution would result in the annexed land falling under the control of Plaintiff and his associates. Id. Defendant Bacaj wrote an article on the matter, "Cleburne County residents alarmed over murky land deals," which was published in the Anniston Star on September 24, 2010. Id.
Defendant Bacaj then received information that Plaintiff had previously, though unsuccessfully, pursued a similar annexation endeavor in Cherokee County, Alabama. Id. On this information, Defendant Bacaj wrote a second article, "Cleburne County land man, E. D. Phillips, raises more questions than answers," which was published on September 26, 2010. Id. Defendant Bacaj's third article followed up on the status of efforts to de-annex the land before the property tax deadline, published with the headline, "Property tax still expected to apply to group of Edwardsville landowners" on September 30, 2010. Id. at p. 4.
Around this time, Defendant Bacaj discovered Plaintiff's involvement in the Gas District. Id. Upon comparing the Gas District to other functioning gas districts, Defendant Bacajnoted that the Gas District's organization—with no office, pipelines, or gas wells—appeared to be unusual. Id. Defendant Bacaj also learned that the "[Gas] [D]istrict's claim to mineral rights on private property was being questioned." Id. Defendant Bacaj reported these findings in his fourth article, published on October 4, 2010, under the headline, "'Highly unusual': Edwardsville gas district doesn't follow template of other bodies." Id.
By early October 2010, "the Gas District and the Planning Commission were part of litigation . . . . in the Circuit Court of Cleburne County, Alabama." Dkt. No. 163-1, p. 4 (citing Cleburne Cty. Comm'n v. Town of Edwardsville, CV-2010-900032 (Cleburne Cty. Cir. Ct. 2010)).3 "[Cleburne] County [had] sued the Town [of Edwardsville] to reverse the annexation," dkt. no. 176, p. 7, and to "undo what [Plaintiff] had set in motion" with regard to the Gas District, Bacaj aff., p. 5.
On October 14, 2010, Defendant Bacaj's fifth article was published in the Anniston Star with the headline, "Edwardsville works to reverse land grab." Id. at p. 4. The article reported that the Town of Edwardsville would soon vote on a resolution tode-annex the Cleburne County land and dissolve the Planning Commission. Id. On October 20, 2010, Defendant Bacaj followed this with a sixth article relaying the outcome of that vote: "Edwardsville commission dissolved, disputed land de-annexed." Id. This article identified Plaintiff as the driving force behind the activities of the Planning Commission and the Gas District and indicated that the Gas District would be the next target for dissolution. Id.
In November and December 2010, Defendant Bacaj authored his seventh and eighth articles relating to these matters. Id. at p. 5. The seventh, "Gas district claims county land, mineral rights," detailed Plaintiff's efforts to create the Gas District in 2008. Id. The eighth article, headlined, "Edwardsville must now turn its attention to a gas district," focused on the litigation surrounding the Gas District, including the costs of litigation to the towns as well as the legal issues concerning the Gas District's title to land. Id.
Sometime before February 6, 2011, Plaintiff's cousin, Michael Inglis ("Inglis"), contacted Defendant Bacaj and informed him that Plaintiff "had been found to be mentally incompetent in 2001." Id. According to Defendant Bacaj, Inglis had hired a private investigator to research Plaintiff during a dispute over inheritance and "ended up obtaining records showing that [Plaintiff] had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic andthat a conservator had been appointed for him." Id. Inglis provided Defendant Bacaj with copies of the records verifying this information—including a copy of "an order entered by a Carroll County, Georgia[,] probate judge"—all of which Inglis "dropped . . . off at [Defendant Bacaj's] office at the Anniston Star." Id. Defendant Bacaj maintains that Inglis informed him that Plaintiff had taken out loans for real estate transactions despite being legally incompetent and that records documenting these events were available in the courthouses in Carroll County and DeKalb County, Georgia. Id.
On the advice of Inglis, Defendant Bacaj "personally went . . . and searched the real estate records at the Carroll[ ] [County] courthouse." Id. Searching under Plaintiff's name as well as the name of his conservators as provided by Inglis, Defendant Bacaj discovered records indicating that Plaintiff "had conducted several real estate transactions after losing control of his financial capabilities, either personally or through his conservator," resulting in "many thousands of dollars of liens being filed against him." Id. at pp. 5-6. In addition to the real estate records, Defendant Bacaj "went to the clerk's office to look at the public records relating to the filing of civil lawsuits." Id. at p. 6. In this location, Defendant Bacaj found records of several lawsuits that banks had filed against Plaintiff alleging that Plaintiff had conducted fraudulenttransactions. Id. In response to these lawsuits, Plaintiff's conservator had filed documents "taking the position that [Plaintiff] was not mentally capable of entering into legal transactions" and referencing "his being diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and his being declared incompetent prior to the transactions" at issue. Id.
In the record of one civil action filed against Plaintiff in the State Court of Carroll County in 2004, Plaintiff's guardian and attorney filed various pleadings specifically citing his legal incapacity, inability "to make reliable and informed decisions regarding his personal property," and inability "to maintain proper doses of medications." Dkt. No. 163-4, pp. 8-9, 15-16. The record in that state-court action also included a copy of the "Final Order" of the Probate Court of Carroll County declaring Plaintiff "incapacitated by reason of mental illness and mental disability" on July 23, 2001. Id. at pp. 17-18. Plaintiff's counsel had attached this Final Order to a Motion filed on Plaintiff's behalf. Id. The Final Order decrees:
[Plaintiff] is mentally disabled due to his established history of Paranoid Schizophrenia. [Plaintiff] is unable to make reliable, informed, consistent decisions regarding his person and property because of his...
To continue reading
Request your trial