Snead v. Forbes, Inc.

• Decision Date: 06 October 1971
• Docket Number: No. 54501,54501
• Parties: J. L. S. SNEAD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FORBES, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 746

275 N.E.2d 746

2 Ill.App.3d 22

J. L. S. SNEAD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FORBES, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 54501.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Fourth Division.

Oct. 6, 1971.

Philip H. Corboy and James P. Chapman, Chicago, for appellant.

Robert F. Hanley and Arthur H. Martin, Chicago, for appellee; Jenner & Block, Chicago, of counsel.

ADESKO, Presiding Justice.

Plaintiff J.L.S. Snead, brought this action to recover damages allegedly occasioned by certain libelous articles printed by defendant, Forbes, Inc., in its nationally distributed business magazine. Plaintiff contended that the articles which appeared in Forbes Magazine constituted libel per se (without proof of special damages required) because the article imputed inability to plaintiff to perform his duties as a professional business executive. After defendant's motion to dismiss was denied, defendant then moved for summary judgment, contending that as a matter of law, the articles were not libelous per se. The trial court granted defendant's motion. On appeal, plaintiff contends that under New York substantive law, the articles, taken as a whole, constitute libel per se and in the alternative, under Illinois substantive law, the articles also constitute libel per se.

We must first summarize the contents of the two disputed articles. The first article, 'A Tale of Three Drivers' appeared in the September 1, 1964, issue of Forbes Magazine (hereinafter Forbes). The second article, 'Here Come the Trucks' appeared in the December 1, 1964 issue of Forbes. Both articles deal with fluctuations in the fortunes of the trucking industry, with the first article focusing on Consolidated Freightways, the nation's largest trucking company.

The first disputed article, 'A Tale of Three Drivers', postulates that the creation of a successful large corporation requires a development in three stages, accompanied by what it calls 'three contrasting styles of management.' The article details those stages and describes the accompanying styles of management, by fixing upon the activities of the men who ran Consolidated Freightways during its growth into the nation's largest trucker. 'A Tale of Three Drivers' describes the stewardships of each of Consolidated Freightways' three presidents: Leland Jones, the founder and first president, described as 'The Depression Kid'; plaintiff, J.L.S. Snead, the second president, described as 'The Zeckendorf of Transportation'; and William White, the third and current president, described as 'Bill the Digester'. The article's appraisal of each stewardship is best illustrated by the substitute to the article:

'Under three different bosses, Consolidated Freightways has gone through the pains of birth (James), wild expansion * * * (plaintiff) * * * and drastic retreat (White). Now, it seems headed for smoother riding.'

Plaintiff's achievements are discussed as illustrative of the management style characteristic of a company's middle stage of growth: 'wild expansion'. Plaintiff is presented as an ambitious executive who engineered an enormous growth in a short time:

'Snead as it turned out, was no manager. But he did have vision. He was a man with imagination, daring and guts, unafraid to make mistakes. In 1955 CF was just a medium-sized company; its routes stretched only from the West Coast to Chicago.

'Moving headquarters from Portland to a modern office in the Menlo Park suburb of San Francisco, Snead went big time. Acquiring 27 truck companies, Snead spread Consolidated across the U.S. from coast to coast, went into Canada and Alaska and even Hawaii. By 1960 Snead and turned Consolidated into the nation's biggest trucker by far.

'But Snead had gone too fast. He had boosted debt 450 per cent to $60 million and shares outstanding from 1.3 million in 1956 to 2.7 million. While his trucking operations needed attention, Snead began expanding Consolidated's non-trucking business for all it was worth. He reorganized the company, making it possible to expand under the deal with White Motor to market James' Freightliner. Today Consolidated makes about 4,000 of these $15--20,000 truck-tractors and trucks a year and White sells them. Snead also bought another winner: Transicold, which makes refrigeration equipment for vehicles and is second only to Westinghouse in this field.

'Snead's other choices did not work out so well. He bought some parts of a bankrupt West Coast-to-Hawaii steamship company and went into the business himself. In two years it lost about $9 million and was liquidated. His Hawaiian truck operations could not compete against local competition. The world-wide moving company Snead set up was a big money-loser.

'Signs of indigestion were everywhere. The 1960 business-cycle dip hit the trucking industry hard and Consolidated even harder. In 1960 revenues reached $152 million up 265 per cent in six years, but losses hit.$2.7 million or $1.07 per share vs. a profit of $1.35 the year before.'

The second disputed article, 'Here Come the Trucks' is not an article about Consolidated Freightways. It does mention the company, but makes no mention of the plaintiff. Rather it is a general review of the trucking industry's fortunes from the beginning of the 1930's to the mid 1960's. The specific example in the article which plaintiff objects to reads as follows:

'Consolidated is perhaps the most dramatic example of the kind of difficulties the big companies got themselves into. Founded in 1929 as Federal Auto Freight in a merger of four small truck lines, the company expanded steadily during the Depression and after. In 1954, the company suddenly went on a buying spree. Within six years, it acquired more than a dozen other trucking companies. This made Consolidated the nation's biggest motor carrier, but it also made Consolidated a mess. To finance the acquisitions, the company had to boost its debt by 452 per cent to $60.4 million. It also had to increase the number of shares outstanding from 1.3 million to 2.7 million.

'Some of the acquisitions were excellent--but not all. Consolidated bought freight lines that duplicated each other's facilities. It bought into three of Hawaiian Textron's steamships to found a fishyback service. The idea was for the ships to carry freight-filled containers to Hawaii, where Consolidated trucks and trailers would pick them up and haul them to their destination. It proved a loser. Consolidated had to...