Weaver v. Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.

• Citation: 926 A.2d 899
• Decision Date: 28 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. 42 MAP 2006.,42 MAP 2006.
• Parties: Robin WEAVER, Appellant, v. LANCASTER NEWSPAPERS, INC., Intelligencer Journal and Oscar Lee Brownstein, Appellees.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

926 A.2d 899

Robin WEAVER, Appellant, v. LANCASTER NEWSPAPERS, INC., Intelligencer Journal and Oscar Lee Brownstein, Appellees.

No. 42 MAP 2006.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued December 4, 2006.

Decided June 28, 2007.

Jeffrey Philip Paul, Esq., Law Offices of Jeffrey Philip Paul, for Robin Weaver.

Harry Daniel McMunigal, Esq., Bingaman Hess, Wyomissing, for Oscar Lee Brownstein.

Before: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, and BALDWIN, JJ.

OPINION

Chief Justice CAPPY.

This appeal raises the question of whether the republication of a statement, after the defendant receives a complaint alleging that the statement is defamatory, is relevant to the presence of actual malice in the initial publication. For the reasons set forth below, we find that the republication is relevant. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the Superior Court and remand to the trial court to consider the impact of a republication on the determination of actual malice.

The following facts are pertinent to the trial court's consideration of a motion for summary judgment brought by Appellee Oscar Lee Brownstein. Appellant Robin Weaver is an East Lampeter Township police officer in Lancaster County. In 1991, he investigated the murder of sixteen-year-old Laurie Show. The next year, Lisa Michelle Lambert was convicted of the murder of Show. The conviction was affirmed by the Superior Court, and this Court declined Lambert's petition for allowance of appeal. However, Lambert successfully petitioned the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for a writ of habeas corpus. The district court granted Lambert's habeas petition and ordered that she be released. Lambert v. Blackwell, 962 F.Supp. 1521 (E.D.Pa.1997), vacated, 134 F.3d 506 (3d Cir.1997). In the published opinion of the court, Judge Stewart Dalzell accused the officers of the East Lampeter Township Police Department, including Officer Weaver, of fabricating and destroying evidence and perjury. Additionally, during the proceeding, Lambert accused Weaver and two other officers of raping her. No charges were filed in connection with this allegation.

The federal court's opinion generated a great deal of media coverage and an influx of public commentary. Among such was a letter to the editor of the Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster, Pennsylvania authored by Brownstein. The following excerpt from the letter published on June 23, 1997 is at issue in this case:

Now here is an unanswered question: How did Officer Robin Weaver — who knew Lambert and Yunkin,[¹] and who presumably led two other policemen into Lambert's apartment — know that Lambert would be home alone, that the door to the apartment had been broken by Yunkin in a fit of anger, and that Yunkin would not return while they were allegedly raping Lambert at gunpoint? Of course, maybe Lambert just made up the whole story, knowing that five years later Weaver would be arraigned for the sexual abuse of women and children. Sure.

On June 12, 1998 Weaver filed defamation claims against the newspaper and Brownstein. In his complaint, Weaver averred that he had not raped Lambert and he was never charged with doing so. Further, he had never been arraigned for the sexual abuse of women and children. Additionally, three months after Weaver filed the initial compliant claiming that he had not been arraigned for sexual molestation, Brownstein's letter was reprinted on the "Free Lisa Lambert" website in toto. Brownstein then filed a motion for summary judgment claiming that Weaver failed to prove that Brownstein had acted with actual malice. The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment and dismissed Weaver's complaint with prejudice.

The Superior Court affirmed in a published opinion, holding that Weaver was a public figure, and that he failed to state a prima facie case for defamation because he did not establish that Brownstein had acted with actual malice. Weaver v. Lancaster Newspapers Inc., 875 A.2d 1093, 1100 (Pa.Super.2005). Actual malice requires that Brownstein published his letter in the newspaper with knowledge that his statements concerning Weaver were false or that he acted with reckless disregard to their falsity. Id. at 1097. The Superior Court reasoned that the fact that Lambert had accused Weaver of rape was a matter of public record, and therefore, Brownstein's repetition of the allegation did not constitute actual malice. Id. at 1098. With respect to the allegations that Weaver had been arraigned for the molestation of women and children, the court found that there was no evidence that Brownstein actually knew that his allegation was false, but rather he had merely confused Weaver's name with the name of another officer who had been arraigned for those crimes. Id. at 1099. The Superior Court noted that some evidence of ill will, or even a desire to harm Weaver's reputation, did not rise to the level of actual malice. Id. at 1100. Finally, the Superior Court dismissed the possibility that Weaver could demonstrate actual malice in the initial publication through evidence that Brownstein agreed to allow his letter to the editor to be republished on the "Free Lisa Lambert" website approximately three months after he had been sued for publishing the letter in the first place. Id. The Superior Court held that the proper focus was Brownstein's mental state at the time he first published the letter, and that his act of republication over a year later had no bearing on his earlier mental state. Id.

We granted allocatur on a limited basis to consider whether under this Court's decision in O'Donnell v. Philadelphia Record Co., 356 Pa. 307, 51 A.2d 775 (1947), Brownstein's alleged actions in granting permission, in the post-complaint time-frame, to a third party to republish the disputed letter to the editor, constitutes sufficient circumstantial evidence of actual malice for the cause of action against Brownstein to survive his motion for summary judgment.²

The Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure instruct that the court shall enter summary judgment when there is no genuine issue of any material fact as to a necessary element of the cause of action or defense that could be established by additional discovery. Pa.R.C.P. 1035.2(1). See Fine v. Checcio, 582 Pa. 253, 870 A.2d 850, 857 (2005). In this case, the trial court could grant summary judgment only if reasonable minds could not differ on the issue of whether or not Brownstein acted with actual malice. See Washington v. Baxter, 553 Pa. 434, 719 A.2d 733, 740 (1998). But, if there are any material facts in dispute as to actual malice, or if the facts can support conflicting inferences, the case is not free from doubt, and therefore, summary judgment is inappropriate. Id. This is because a motion for summary judgment is based on an evidentiary record that entitles the moving party to a judgment as a matter of law. Fine, 870 A.2d at 857. In other words, if there is relevant evidence that a jury could reasonably credit that would allow the non-moving party to prevail, then judgment as a matter of law would be inappropriate. In considering the merits of a motion for summary judgment, a trial court views the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, in this case Weaver, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact must be resolved against the moving party, Brownstein. Id.

On review, an appellate court may reverse a grant of summary judgment if there has been an error of law or an abuse of discretion. Id. But the issue as to whether there are no genuine issues as to any material fact presents a question of law, and therefore, on that question our standard of review is de novo. Id. This means we need not defer to the determinations made by the lower tribunals. Id. Our standard is likewise de novo when we consider the relevance of republication on a finding of actual malice in the initial publication, because that is also a question of law. In reviewing these two questions of law, our scope of review is plenary, as we may examine the entire contents of the record. In re Hickson, 573 Pa. 127, 821 A.2d 1238, 1242 (2003).

First we will examine our law on defamation. Then we will consider our holding in O'Donnell and the arguments of the parties addressing the legal questions of republication and genuine issues of material fact.

Weaver does not contest his status as a public figure, so we consider these arguments in light of our law concerning public-figure defamation. In Pennsylvania, the Uniform Single Publication Act, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 8341-8345, sets forth the elements of a prima facie case in a defamation action. The burden is on the plaintiff to prove:

(1) The defamatory character of the communication.

(2) Its publication by the defendant.

(3) Its application to the plaintiff.

(4) The understanding by the recipient of its defamatory meaning.

(5) The understanding by the recipient of it as intended to be applied to the plaintiff.

(6) Special harm resulting to the plaintiff from its publication.

(7) Abuse of a conditionally privileged occasion.

42 Pa.C.S. § 8343(a). In turn, when a prima facie case of defamation is properly raised, the defendant may rebut by proving:

(1) The truth of the defamatory communication.

(2) The privileged character of the occasion on which it was published.

(3) The character of the subject matter of defamatory comment as of public concern.

Id. at § 8343(b). Caselaw further informs us that if the plaintiff is a public figure he or she must prove that the defendant published the offending statement with "actual malice," i.e., with knowledge that the statement was false or with reckless disregard of its falsity. Curran v. Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., 497 Pa. 163, 439 A.2d 652, 659 (1981) (quoting New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 279-80, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964)). Actual malice is not judged on an objective reasonable...