Rose v. Koch
| Decision Date | 20 October 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 40409,40409 |
| Citation | 154 N.W.2d 409,278 Minn. 235 |
| Parties | Arnold ROSE, Respondent, v. Gerda KOCH, and Christian Research, Inc., Appellants. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. A published statement that a person is a "collaborator' with Communists and Communist fronters,' based upon his prior participation in the writing of a book with other persons who are allegedly Communists and Communist fronters, may to the ordinary reader have the defamatory connotation that such person is a Communist or Communist sympathizer, and, if untrue, is libelous. Under the evidence the jury could, at it did, find the statement to be untrue and of defamatory connotation as distinguished from mere factual denotement of the identity of such other persons.
2. Defendants in action for libel were not denied a fair trial either by the conduct of the trial court or by its rulings upon the admission of evidence relating to defendants' attempted proof that plaintiff or the other persons with whom he allegedly collaborated in the writing of a book were Communists or Communist fronters.
3. Defamatory and untrue statements published concerning this plaintiff, having been made at times when he was a public official and at other times when he was a public figure, are not actionable in the absence of clear and convincing proof, under constitutionally sufficient instructions from the trial court, that such statements were made with actual knowledge that the statements were false or in reckless disregard of whether or not they were false. The instructions of the court erroneously limited defendants' conditional privilege to the times when plaintiff was a candidate for public office or an elected public official and inaccurately stated the elements of actual malice for purposes of constitutional privilege, measured by decisions of the United States Supreme Court having controlling and retroactive application in this case.
Harry H. Peterson, Minneapolis, Jerome M. Daly, Savage, for appellants.
Vennum, Newhall, Ackman, & Goertz, Norman Newhall, Jr., and John H. Strothman, Minneapolis, for respondent.
A jury in Hennepin County District Court awarded plaintiff Arnold Rose general and punitive damages in his action for civil libel against defendants Christian Research, Inc. and Gerda Koch. The jury's verdict, however, absolved a third defendant, Adolph Grinde. Defendants Christian Research, Inc. and Gerda Koch appeal from the judgment entered against them and from the order denying their post-trial motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial.
The most important issue for decision is whether a person of this plaintiff's position may recover from these defendants for untruthful and defamatory statements without proof that defendants made those statements either with knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard of whether or not they were false. A contextual issue is whether the trial court's instructions to the jury concerning the burden of such proof imposed upon plaintiff were constitutionally correct. Our decision in the negative is controlled by recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court imposing constitutional limitations upon the state law of libel. Other and somewhat secondary issues will be stated in the course of this opinion.
Arnold Rose is, by the undisputed evidence of both parties, a person of prominence and public importance in this state and, indeed, nationally and even internationally. He was a state representative from a Minneapolis district in the Minnesota Legislature from early January 1963 to December 31, 1964; his record of effective service was attested at trial by former legislative colleagues. He has been a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota since 1949 and now holds the rank of full Professor of Sociology. He possesses such other impressive credentials as advanced degrees in sociology from the University of Chicago; former Fulbright Professor at the University of Paris, 1951--1952, and at the University of Rome, 1956--1957; and author of more than 175 scholarly works, for one of which he won the First Award for Essays in Social Theory, American Association for the Advancement of Science. His writings are not directed to scholars alone, for he is a coauthor of a monumental book on race relations, entitled 'An American Dilemma,' 1 and he is the author of a condensation of that book, entitled 'The Negro in America.' 2 His lectures are not limited to university student audiences alone, for he has lectured in this state on the subject of public attitudes towards Communism and has lectured in several foreign counties under the auspices of the State Department of the United States. At the invitation of the President of the United States he has served on such high-level conferences and committees as the National Advisory Committee on Housing for Senior Citizens. He absented himself during the trial for a brief period because of a current commitment to attend one such meeting in Washington, D.C.
Defendant Christian Research, Inc., is a corporation, 3 and defendant Gerda Koch is its administrative head. The board of directors of Christian Research includes several Protestant clergymen. 4 'Our main goal as Christians,' Miss Koch testified, is to determine 'dangerous trends' in the political leanings and connections various people throughout the United States in the 'firm conviction that the target of the Communist conspiracy is Christianity and the Church.' The sincerity of defendants in this fundamental motivation is, with commendable candor, acknowledged by plaintiff.
Christian Research operates a bookstore in the home of Miss Koch containing some 500 hard-cover books and about 1,000 pamphlets and tracts. 5 It publishes a circulartype newspaper, 6 entitled 'Facts for Action,' distributed about 5 times a year to a regular mailing list of approximately 400 subscribers and to visitors of the Minnesota State Fair.
Miss Koch is the editor of 'Facts for Action' and 'accepts the sole responsibility for (its) contents.' The vice-chairman of Christian Research testified that Miss Koch would check with him from time to time but she was responsible for gathering and sending out material which she thought was reliable. 7 Defendants relied upon numerous sources in publishing 'Facts for Action'--its own library of books and pamphlets, reports of congressional and state legislative committees, and exchanges of information with other like organizations. It would not appear from this record that Miss Koch has had any prior professional training or experience in sociology, political science, journalism, law, or research disciplines. Her vocational experience has been as an elementary school teacher, most recently as a substitute teacher in the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Bloomington school districts.
The defamatory statements about Dr. Rose are based primarily upon his collaboration in the writing of 'An American Dilemma,' so a prefatory would about that book is necessary. The Carnegie Corporation decided, shortly prior to 1940, to make a large-scale study of the Negro problem in the United States. In order to have a description of the problem that would be both comprehensive and objective, Carnegie searched for a scholar of international reputation who had not lived in the United States and who came from a country having no significant number of Negroes in its population. Dr. Gunnar Myrdal, an internationally renowned social economist from Sweden, met these criteria and was selected to direct the project. Myrdal brought with him a Swedish sociologist, Richard Sterner, to assist him in the project. Many other people were invited to participate in the project--some of them were scholars and experts who offered suggestions in the general planning of the research or in planning specific research projects; others were part of the working staff who devoted all of their time to the project and prepared research memoranda on special subjects; and yet others were assistants to such staff members and to 'outside collaborators.' Dr. Rose, then a recent university graduate, was at that time one of such assistants. These people were knowledged by name in Myrdal's preface to the book.
The final stage of the project was the writing of the book itself, which was done by Myrdal with the assistance of Sterner and Rose. Dr. Rose prepared drafts for chapters on problems connected with race and population, the present political scene, patterns of discrimination, and the church and education, in addition to editing other portions of the work. Myrdal, in his author's preface to the first edition of the book, wrote most generously of his 'collaboration' with Rose and Sterner. 8
'An American Dilemma' is undoubtedly both a monumental and controversial book. Its theme is the struggle between the democratic ideals of equality in the 'American Creed' and the lack of equality in the treatment of the American Negro--'the moral dilemma of the White American.' Spokesmen of the Communist Party, including one Doxey A. Wilkerson, who had been one of the 'An American Dilemma' staff members, condemned it; but several American commentators gave it high praise. The United States Supreme Court cited it in its 1954 school desegregation decision as an authority for holding that segregated schools had a detrimental effect upon Negro children. 9 Senator James O. Eastland (D-Miss.) made a speech in the United States Senate one year later attacking the book and, more particularly, its authors. Eastland labeled Myrdal 'a socialist who had served the Communist cause' and charged that 16 of the social experts named in the author's preface had 'Communist connections,' based upon information 'taken right out of lists of members of Communist and subversive organizations dedicated to the overthrow of our Constitut...
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