Talbot v. Johnson Newspaper Corp.
| Decision Date | 17 March 1988 |
| Citation | 522 N.E.2d 1027,527 N.Y.S.2d 729,71 N.Y.2d 827 |
| Parties | , 522 N.E.2d 1027, 46 Ed. Law Rep. 701, 15 Media L. Rep. 1206 Leon TALBOT et al., Plaintiffs, v. JOHNSON NEWSPAPER CORPORATION et al., Appellants, and Stuart P. MacLaren et al., Respondents. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
The order of the Appellate Division, 123 A.D.2d 147, 511 N.Y.S.2d 152, should be affirmed, with costs.
Leon Talbot and Jane Talbot commenced a defamation action against Stuart MacLaren, his daughter Patricia MacLaren, and Johnson Newspaper Corp. (as well as several individual media defendants), seeking damages for injury to his reputation as a coach at St. Lawrence University, caused by two letters written by Stuart MacLaren. The letters dealt with two incidents recounted by Patricia MacLaren to her father, which occurred in May 1982, allegedly involving Leon Talbot. In the first, a St. Lawrence student was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by a second student shortly after he left a party at the Talbots' home; he was charged with operating a vehicle while his condition was impaired by alcohol, a charge that was eventually dismissed. Patricia MacLaren, then a St. Lawrence senior, assisted in identifying the body and notifying the deceased's roommates. The second incident occurred approximately two weeks later at a fraternity party where MacLaren observed an individual she believed to be Leon Talbot in a severely intoxicated state.
More than two years after his daughter's graduation, Stuart MacLaren, a California resident, wrote from there to the university president and board of trustees criticizing the handling of the student's death, describing his daughter's account of the coach's behavior at the campus party, and questioning the propriety of university requests for contributions from alumni in light of these events. In October 1984, defendant newspaper featured the letter (which had been sent to it by a trustee) in an article. The article quoted from the letter as well as a telephone interview with Patricia MacLaren, also in California, in which she said, "I have no doubt in my mind that I saw the coach guzzling beer at the party." Talbot insisted that the individual she saw must have been a look-alike. Four days later, the newspaper published a second article entitled "Coach's Double Fell Asleep on Frat Sofa," which reported that a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to Talbot was the person described in the MacLaren letter. A subsequent letter written by Stuart MacLaren reiterated that his daughter still maintained that the man on the sofa was Leon Talbot.
The MacLarens--both California residents who conducted...
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