Sprague v. Walter
| Decision Date | 11 April 1995 |
| Citation | 441 Pa.Super. 1,656 A.2d 890 |
| Parties | Richard A. SPRAGUE, Appellant, v. Greg WALTER, Kent Pollock, Howard Shapiro, Eugene L. Roberts, Jr., Creed C. Black, Michael Pakenham, Aaron Epstein, Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. and Knight Newspapers, Inc. Richard A. SPRAGUE, v. Greg WALTER, Kent Pollock, Howard Shapiro, Eugene L. Roberts, Jr., Creed C. Black, Michael Pakenham, Aaron Epstein, Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., and Knight Newspapers, Inc. Appeal of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
James E. Beasley, Philadelphia, for Richard A. Sprague.
Robert C. Heim, Philadelphia, for Philadelphia Newspapers.
Before CIRILLO, HOFFMAN and CERCONE, JJ.
This appeal is from the entry of judgment in favor of plaintiff, Richard Sprague, and against defendant, Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. (hereinafter PNI) in this defamation case in which the jury awarded Mr. Sprague $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $31.5 million in punitive damages. Prior to the entry of judgment, the lower court denied PNI's motion for a new trial and/or for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and also in the alternative for a remittitur. We affirm the judgment of the lower court on compensatory damages but grant a remittitur as to punitive damages.
Richard Sprague commenced the instant action in 1973 against PNI and a group of its reporters alleging that he had been defamed as a result of four articles published in the Philadelphia Inquirer in March and April of that year. 1 Inquirer investigative reporter Greg Walter was the author or co-author/researcher of two of the articles, the March 25 article and the April 1 article. Kent Pollock assisted Walter in writing the April 1 article. Reporter Howard Shapiro wrote the March 27 and March 31 articles in which Walter assisted in investigation.
The first three articles, March 25, 27, and 31, 1973, dealt with the court-martial trial of several officers of the Pennsylvania state police who were charged with illegally wiretapping other state police officers. Those other officers were in turn investigating alleged corruption in the Philadelphia police department. The main thrust of the fourth article of April 1, 1973, concerned the investigation of the death of one John Applegate in Philadelphia in 1963, the actions of the police in response to Applegate's death, and the role of Mr. Sprague, who at the time was the Chief of Homicide in the District Attorney's Office of Philadelphia County, in his handling of the prosecution related to Applegate's death. Mr. Sprague alleged in his complaint that the first three articles contained direct inferences and charges that Sprague was linked under suspicious circumstances to the State police wiretapping case in a way which indicated he had wrongfully and dishonestly interfered with and manipulated phases of that case. He also alleged that the April 1 article contained a strong inferential accusation that he wrongfully and surreptitiously obstructed a homicide case (the Applegate case) in order to permit the son of a friend to escape prosecution. Such charges and inferences, Sprague asserted, were false and misleading. Mr. Sprague alleged that PNI published the articles with actual malice, knowing the articles to be false, defamatory and destructive of his excellent reputation as a public official, that defendants published the articles with reckless disregard of their falsity and with common law malice based on PNI's realization that its articles were false or that it subjectively entertained serious doubts as to the truth of its statements. See Bose Corporation v. Consumers Union, 466 U.S. 485, 511 n. 30, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1965 n. 30, 80 L.Ed.2d 502, 524 n. 30 (1984); DiSalle v. P.G. Pub. Co., 375 Pa.Super. 510, 546-48, 544 A.2d 1345, 1364-67 (1988) (per Cirillo, J.), appeal denied, 521 Pa. 620, 557 A.2d 724 (1989), cert. denied, 492 U.S. 906, 109 S.Ct. 3216, 106 L.Ed.2d 566 (1989). Mr. Sprague also alleged that after the four articles were published, PNI further defamed him by sending copies of the articles to members of the United States Senate at a time when he had been appointed as counsel in a Senate investigation. Sprague claimed that the PNI correspondence resulted in his dismissal from that post.
The first trial of this matter was conducted in 1983 before a jury, with the Honorable Charles A. Lord presiding. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Sprague consisting of $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages. PNI appealed the judgment entered on the verdict to this court.
A panel of this court, in July, 1986, reversed the judgment of the lower court and ordered that the case be remanded for a new trial on the basis that the lower court had improperly applied the Pennsylvania Shield Law, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5942(a). 2 On appeal the Pennsylvania Supreme Court not only determined that a new trial was required but that it was also necessary to instruct the jury that the invocation of the Shield Law did not establish an affirmative inference either as to the reliability of the source or as to the validity of the information received. Sprague v. Walter, 518 Pa. 425, 441, 543 A.2d 1078, 1086 (1988). 3
On remand, the trial conducted a second jury trial in 1990 with the Honorable Charles P. Mirarchi, Jr. presiding. 4 At this trial, the jury awarded Sprague $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $31.5 million in punitive damages. From the judgment entered on this verdict, PNI filed the instant timely appeal, in which it raises the following issues:
1. Were the trial court's evidentiary rulings on the issue of actual malice erroneous and prejudicial?
a. Did the trial court err by permitting in evidence privileged medical and psychiatric records and other evidence that described in lurid detail the sexual identity conflicts and other personal problems of a reporter for PNI?
b. Did the trial court err by excluding from evidence critical information relied upon by PNI in forming its belief at the time of publication that the articles were accurate?
2. Did the trial court err by excluding evidence of Sprague's substantial income as an attorney in private practice, even though he claimed that he had suffered actual harm, and was entitled to substantial compensatory damages largely because his reputation as an attorney in private practice had been injured by PNI's alleged libel?
3. Did the trial court err by giving jury instructions that (a) permitted the jury to base liability on articles that this Court had previously held were not actionable 5; (b) failed to include a charge on the fair report privilege; (c) disparaged PNI for protecting the confidentiality of its sources in accordance with the Pa.Shield Law; (d) effectively directed the jury to find that the articles meant what Sprague contended that they meant; and (e) summarized important evidence inaccurately and unfairly?
4. Did the trial court err in its evidentiary rulings and jury instructions pertaining to the question of punitive damages?
a. Did the court err by permitting Sprague to aggressively advance a "continuing harm" theory of punitive damages, pursuant to which he repeatedly attacked PNI's post-publication beliefs and actions, without permitting PNI to explain and justify those beliefs and actions?
b. Did the court err by permitting Sprague to prove that PNI's "net worth" was $102 million and to urge the jury repeatedly to award a portion of that amount as punitive damages, without permitting PNI to submit any evidence concerning its net worth, and without defining or explaining "net worth" in the jury instructions?
5. Was the $31.5 million punitive damages award excessive under Pennsylvania law?
6. Was the $31.5 million punitive damages award unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution?
7. Did the proceedings in the trial court, which led to the $31.5 million punitive damages award, deny PNI due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution?
8. If a new trial is not ordered, should there be a substantial remittitur of both compensatory and punitive damages awards?
It must be noted that PNI centers its claims for a new trial or remittitur on the alleged errors of the trial court in its rulings on the admissibility of evidence at trial and upon the court's errors in its charge to the jury. Thus, we shall direct our attention to these claims.
We will address PNI's contentions in order, but first, we will set forth the evidence which was before the lower court. The lower court comprehensively summarized this evidence as follows:
Richard A. Sprague (Sprague) brought this libel action against The Philadelphia Inquirer, (Inquirer), published by Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. (PNI) following a series of defamatory articles appearing in March and April, 1973 editions. Sprague was First Assistant District Attorney at the time of the defamatory publications.
The first articles (March 1973) ... accused Sprague of involvement with illegal wiretapping. The second series of articles (April 1973) ... accused Sprague of quashing a homicide case in 1963, as a favor to Rocco Urella, Sr. (Urella, Sr.), Commissioner, Pennsylvania State Police (State Police). These articles were principally authored by Greg Walter (Walter) with the assistance of others, including Kent Pollock (Pollock), Inquirer reporter[,] and Eugene L. Roberts, Jr. (Roberts) Executive Editor of The Inquirer.
The origin of this attack can be directly traced to the successful prosecution of Walter on criminal wiretapping charges in 1972 while he was employed as a reporter with The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (Bulletin). Walter was arrested March 22, 1972 and convicted six months later. Sprague was the prosecutor.
At the time of publication Walter's Municipal Court...
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