Richie v. Paramount Pictures Corp., CX-94-2249
| Decision Date | 23 February 1996 |
| Docket Number | C5-94-2501,Nos. CX-94-2249,CX-94-2249,s. CX-94-2249 |
| Parties | 24 Media L. Rep. 1897 James RICHIE, et al., Respondents, v. PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION, et al., Petitioners, Appellants (), Defendants (C5-94-2501), Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., d/b/a KSTP, et al., Defendants (), Kathy Tatone, Petitioner, Appellant (C5-94-2501). Nos. , C5-94-2501. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Absent allegations of actual malice, in order to survive a summary judgment motion in a defamation action concerning statements made by the media and involving a matter of public concern, there must be a genuine issue of material fact as to whether plaintiffs suffered actual harm; damages cannot be presumed.
2. In a defamation suit, emotional damages are not compensable absent damage to reputation.
Review of Court of Appeals.
John P. Borger, Eric E. Jorstad, Faegre & Benson, Minneapolis, and Bruce Pottash, Christine Cunningham, Los Angeles, CA, for appellants Paramount Pictures Corporations and MoPo Productions.
Lewis A. Remele, Jr., Kevin P. Hickey, Minneapolis, for appellant Kathy Tatone.
Tyrone P. Bujold, Robert J. Gilbertson, Minneapolis, for respondents.
Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.
James Richie and Karen Gerten commenced this action in May of 1993 alleging defamation and false light invasion of privacy. These charges were based upon a photograph shown during the November 5, 1992 telecast of The Maury Povich Show (the Show), a nationally syndicated television program. Appellant, Paramount Pictures Corp. (Paramount), produced the Show and employed the personnel who obtained the photograph and incorporated it into the Show. Appellant, Kathy Tatone, provided the photograph to the Show. Appellant, MoPo Productions Inc. (MoPo), provided the services of host Maury Povich to the Show, but Povich himself was not aware that a photograph was being used in connection with the segment of the Show in question. 1
On July 12, 1994, Hennepin County District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Paramount and MoPo on both the defamation and privacy claims. On November 17, 1994, the court granted summary judgment in favor of Tatone on both claims. However, on May 30, 1995, the court of appeals reversed the trial court and remanded the case for trial. Richie v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 532 N.W.2d 235 (Minn.App.1995). This court granted review on July 20, 1995.
In September of 1992, attorney Kathy Tatone represented Denise Richie in a successful civil case against her parents arising out of sexual abuse by Denise's father, Dennis Richie. Denise also obtained a favorable verdict against her mother, Lynnell (also spelled "Lanell") Richie, for negligently failing to take any action to prevent the abuse.
Following the verdict, a producer for the Maury Povich Show contacted Tatone regarding an appearance on that program by Tatone and Denise Richie. Tatone negotiated and entered into a legal agreement with the Show regarding the terms of the appearance. Shortly before the program was scheduled to be taped, the Show requested photographs of Denise Richie and her parents. Tatone contacted Denise Richie to obtain approval to use photographs for the Show and to discuss with Denise what photographs should be used. Denise Richie had provided Tatone with a family photo album in connection with the trial. Denise suggested that Tatone look through the album and find a picture of her in a graduation gown with her parents. Tatone found a single picture in which Denise Richie was standing in a gown between an adult male and female. Tatone provided this and one other photograph to the Show's producers.
The program was broadcast on November 5, 1992. The Show's producers displayed the photo of Denise Richie in her graduation gown standing between two adults. The two adults standing next to Denise Richie, however, were not Denise's parents, but her godparents, 2 Karen Gerten and James Richie. The photo was displayed at various times during the broadcast including times coinciding with Denise Richie's description of the sexual abuse perpetrated against her by her father. Gerten and Richie, however, were never identified by name; the names of Denise's parents were used throughout the Show. Also, with Gerten and Richie's permission, a retraction was aired by the Show a few weeks after the broadcast. Neither Karen Gerten nor James Richie saw their pictures used during the original telecast. Each learned later, however, of the Show from family or friends and eventually each watched a videotape of the interview.
After viewing the tape, Richie stated that he was "shocked," "humiliated," "blown away," and felt "just crushed" and "very sick" about the broadcast. Richie also testified that:
I don't take this lightly. I put up with sexual abuse when I was a child in my home. My father sexually abused my sister * * *. The whole thing was so distasteful for me, you know, and----I don't want to go back and live my childhood over again for anything. When I left the house and I started doing my own life and being a different person, then, you know, that was a great thing to me. And now how many years later, all of a sudden now Denny commits these crimes and through someone's careless mistake or some bunch of people's careless mistake, you know, all of a sudden now I'm thrust back into a situation, you know. That has caused me a great deal of emotional pain since I was a child * * * it * * * affect[s] me a lot and I * * * think about it every day.
Gerten also testified concerning how the broadcast affected her:
[I was] embarrassed by having that shown, that I was the mother of someone who was sexually molested by her dad and that I thought it was okay. When I thought about it, I would get sick to my stomach and----emotionally, it was very upsetting * * *.
[W]hen people would look at you, you would wonder if they saw the show, you know, are they staring at me because they saw the show * * *. It was always on my mind. It was upsetting and embarrassing. You're already ashamed that it's even been involved in your family and then you're portrayed as the one who condoned it. I guess I have to say that emotionally I was really, I guess you would say, a basket case.
Finally, both Gerten and Richie testified that they will never know whether people saw the broadcast or think ill of them because of it. The trial court found that neither Karen Gerten nor James Richie have lost any income or incurred any other special damages as a result of the broadcast.
On July 12, 1994, the trial court granted summary judgment for appellants MoPo and Paramount. The court found that Gerten and Richie did not show sufficient harm to reputation to sustain a defamation claim, and that harm to reputation could not be presumed. Additionally, the court found that the emotional harm shown by them could not support a defamation claim. Finally, MoPo and Paramount had argued that New York law should apply to their case essentially because the broadcast originated in New York. The trial court, however, declined to hold on the choice of law issue because it found that under either state's law, it would grant summary judgment.
On November 17, 1994, the trial court granted summary judgment for Kathy Tatone. It found that Tatone's communication was privileged by either the qualified immunity protecting an attorney from liability to third parties for actions arising out of the attorney-client relationship, or by a qualified privilege for statements made on a proper occasion for a proper motive. It further found that Tatone was not liable for defamation because "allowing recovery for emotional distress damages in a defamation action without injury to reputation would, in effect, convert defamation into false light invasion of privacy," and Minnesota has rejected the latter cause of action.
In a split decision, the court of appeals reversed. The majority found that no privilege applied to Tatone. Richie, 532 N.W.2d at 243 (Minn.App.1995). The court also found that harm to reputation could be presumed for purposes of summary judgment. Id. at 240. Finally, the court held that Minnesota law was applicable to the case. Id. at 242.
Tatone appeals the court's findings regarding privileges for defamation and presumed harm in a defamation action. MoPo and Paramount appeal the court's findings regarding presumed harm and choice of law.
On appeal from summary judgment, the reviewing court asks whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and whether the trial court erred in its application of the law. State by Cooper v. French, 460 N.W.2d 2, 4 (Minn.1990). Further, the trial court's "findings of facts, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous * * *." Minn. R. Civ. P. 52.01.
In Minnesota, the elements of defamation "require the plaintiff to prove that a statement was false, that it was communicated to someone besides the plaintiff, and that it tended to harm the plaintiff's reputation and to lower him in the estimation of the community." Rouse v. Dunkley & Bennett, P.A., 520 N.W.2d 406, 410 (Minn.1994). It is the final element of this cause of action that is in dispute in this case.
Harm to reputation can, of course, be proven by direct evidence. Moreover, in cases of defamation per se, 3 the common law allowed harm to reputation to be presumed. See Becker v. Alloy Hardfacing & Engineering Co., 401 N.W.2d 655, 661 (Minn.1987). However, in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court held that in a private plaintiff 4 defamation action against a media defendant speaking on a matter of public concern, states may not constitutionally "permit recovery of presumed * * * damages, at least when liability is not based on a showing of knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth." Id. at 349, 94 S.Ct. at...
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