Health Care Law Prac. b. To the extent a negligence standard applies, there was no evidence of negligence. More recently, a paid obituary in this newspaper reported that a popular local high school student died as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.. On that occasion, he said, he attempted to contact the author of one of the obituaries. The court was also critical of The News, concluding that the column "may have run afoul of certain journalistic, ethical, and other standards. Slander is an oral defamation. at 47. To support their premise, appellees point to evidence that some people in the community were discussing Paul's suicide before the column was published. Appellees make a threshold argument that the Tatums must satisfy the standard for libel per se because they did not plead or prove libel per quod or special damages. Steve Blow is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. We agree with the Tatums. Morning News, Inc., 493 S.W.3d 646, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext's comprehensive legal database . Appellees won a take-nothing summary judgment. The column was privileged as a fair, true, and impartial account of official proceedings. Posted By : / chsaa basketball rule book /; Under :international cultureinternational culture Appellants John and Mary Ann Tatum sued appellees Steve Blow and The Dallas Morning News (DMN) for libel regarding a column that Blow wrote and DMN published one month after the Tatums' son Paul committed suicide. Appellees' summary judgment motion argued that they conclusively negated the element of actual malice, that the Tatums could produce no evidence of actual malice, and that the Tatums could produce no evidence of negligence if that standard applied. To accuse someone of deception is to impeach his or her honesty and integrity. Disposal Sys. The column purported to support this gist with the factual assertion that Paul committed suicide out of remorse, implicitly calling the obituary's statement that Paul died as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident a lie. The Tatums argue that [t]he false gist of the Column is that [they] dishonestly characterized their son's death in the Obituary as a means to shroud his suicide in secrecy. The first question is whether an ordinarily intelligent person could construe the column as conveying that gist. Antitrust & Trade Regulation The Tatums argue that the service at issue is publishing the obituary. The evidence shows that DMN published Paul's obituary, and the Tatums do not allege that the obituary itself did not conform to their order. Even assuming that investigations by the police and the medical examiner are official proceedings, the column does not purport to report about those proceedings. Neely's substantial truth analysis is instructive. Redirecting to https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-cut-move-dallas-cowboys-reveal-tyron-smith-contract-plan-change When one of my colleagues began to inquire, thinking the death deserved news coverage, it turned out to have been a suicide. We reject the Tatums' second appellate issue. We agree that the column's gist associates the obituary with deception, which denotes an intention to deceive, often for personal advantage. at 62 (In this defamation suit involving two physicians, we clarify a longstanding distinction between defamation and defamation per se). The case of Laird v. Tatum raised questions about the use of surveillance by the military and how it might affect the First. Thus, if the column's false gistthat the Tatums wrote Paul's obituary with the intent to deceiveis more damaging to the Tatums' reputations than a true statement would have been, then the gist is not substantially true. Did appellees conclusively prove the fair comment privilege? Government & Administrative Law Later in the opinion, the Court held that the defendant's statement that Milkovich committed perjury was sufficiently factual to be susceptible of being proved true or false. Id. Because the evidence raises a genuine fact issue that the column's gist was neither true nor substantially true, appellees' traditional and no-evidence summary judgment grounds addressing truth and substantial truth cannot support the trial court's judgment. at 122627. We thus conclude that Denton Publishing Co. is still controlling law. IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS No. Id. A three-judge district court agreed with the challengers that the map likely violated Section 2 of the VRA, granting a preliminary injunction that ordered the state to draw a new map. We resolved that case, however, without deciding the issue because the placement of the burden there would not have affected the outcome.Although Turner contains a passing remark in dicta that a defamation plaintiff must prove that the publication is not privileged, 38 S.W.3d at 115, it does not cite Denton Publishing Co. or hint that it overrules that case's holding that privilege is an affirmative defense, 460 S.W.2d at 885. Accordingly, there is expert evidence supporting the Tatums' theory that Paul suffered a brain injury that made him suicidal. The court did not state the basis for any of its rulings. 73.002(b)(2). dallas morning news v tatum oyezmedical emergency tabletop exercise. C.Procedural History and Appellate Issues. Moved Permanently. Next, specifically as to Paul's death, Blow wrote that the paid obituary said Paul died as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident, but Paul's death turned out to have been a suicide. Blow continued, There was a car crash, all right, but death came from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a time of remorse afterward. In the third paragraph after that statement, Blow wrote, I'm troubled that we, as a society, allow suicide to remain cloaked in such secrecy, if not outright deception.. Id. Ironically, the first person I knew to die of AIDS was said to have cancer. In the ePaper section, you'll find: A digital replica of the print edition to give you all the news you need each day Additional ePaper-only bonus content, including extra comics and puzzles See id. The email address cannot be subscribed. Although the West court acknowledged and purported to apply the Milkovich analysis, it disregarded Milkovich's conclusions that accusing a person of being a liar or committing perjury can be sufficiently verifiable to constitute an actionable statement of fact rather than a nonactionable opinion. The Dallas Morning News Access ePaper Optimized for your device. at 894. We have already concluded that a reasonable reader could conclude that the column presents a false gist about the Tatums. In response to Johns's dismissal motion under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, Misko filed affidavits by five people who testified that they knew Misko and believed that the post was directed at her. You already receive all suggested Justia Opinion Summary Newsletters. Did appellees establish as a matter of law that the column is privileged as a fair account of official proceedings or as a fair comment on a matter of public concern? West successfully ran for mayor of a Utah town. filed). Bentley, 94 S.W.3d at 591; see also N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 27980 (1964). Think of how much more attention we pay to the latter. I'm troubled that we, as a society, allow suicide to remain cloaked in such secrecy, if not outright deception. The trial court granted summary judgment for Petitioners. Mack Trucks, Inc. v. Tamez, 206 S.W.3d 572, 582 (Tex.2006). Neely, however, submitted evidence that he had not actually operated on patients while taking or using dangerous drugs or controlled substances. Because we see no matching argument in appellees' amended motion for summary judgment, that argument is not properly before us. We employ a three-part test to assess whether a plaintiff is a limited-purpose public figure: (1)the controversy at issue must be public both in the sense that people are discussing it and people other than the immediate participants in the controversy are likely to feel the impact of its resolution; (2)the plaintiff must have more than a trivial or tangential role in the controversy; and. A statement does not have to refer to the plaintiff by name, however, if people who know and are acquainted with the plaintiff reasonably understand from reading the statement that it referred to the plaintiff. Main, 348 S.W.3d at 395; see also Houseman v. Publicaciones Paso del Norte, S.A., 242 S.W.3d 518, 525 (Tex.App.El Paso 2007, no pet.) Am. See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 61. Heritage Capital, 436 S.W.3d at 875. The column's gist is not simply that the Tatums omitted the fact that Paul committed suicide from the obituary. 05-14-01017-CV, 2015 WL 9582903, at *5 (Tex. Id. The Tatums timely filed a second notice of appeal. Based on his investigation, he concluded that the primary impact involved in the accident was moderate to severe, and that the accident was severe enough that it would have subjected a human occupant of the vehicle to, at a very minimum, the risk of a mild TBI [traumatic brain injury], such as a concussion.. He was an excellent and popular student, an outstanding athlete, and had no history of mental illness. Conversely, a publication that consists of statements that are literally true when read in isolation can still convey a false and defamatory meaning by omitting or juxtaposing facts. Id. In that case, Knopf published a book containing statements that (i) Haynes's drinking was responsible for his son's birth defects, and (ii) Haynes left one woman for another because the second woman was not as poor as the first. Karen Misko took the post to be directed at her and sued Johns for libel. What is the column's gist regarding the Tatums? Am. Supreme Court of Texas. 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Cf. Turner, 38 S.W.3d at 115. For the above reasons, we conclude that a person of ordinary intelligence could construe the column to suggest that Paul suffered from mental illness and his parents failed to confront it honestly and timely, perhaps missing a chance to save his life. The Dallas Morning News Homepage. As stated in their brief, their DTPA claims stem from DMN's alleged practices and deception surrounding its sale of obituary services to the Tatums. They argue that the information DMN failed to disclose was Mr. Under Supreme Court precedents, a defamation plaintiff must prove that the defendant acted with actual malice if the plaintiff is a public official, a public figure, or a limited-purpose public figure. pending). Awareness, frank discussion, timely intervention, treatmentthose are the things that save lives. 1. A no-evidence summary judgment should be reversed if the evidence is sufficient for reasonable and fair-minded jurors to differ in their conclusions. Appellees' contrary argument fails on the first prong we referenced abovethe existence of a public controversy for the Tatums to participate in. denied) (mem.op.) Dallas Morning News Leading daily newspaper serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Id. Similarly, although there is evidence that the Tatums disagreed with the manner of death finding of suicide on Paul's death certificate and tried to persuade the medical examiner to change it, there is no evidence that the outcome of this alleged controversy affected anyone except the Tatums. On appeal, appellees argue only that the affidavits are too speculative. Dec 19, 2022 "Sooner or later someone is going to have to give this area credit for good coaching, good kids and good programs." 94 S.W.3d at 583. When reviewing a traditional summary judgment for a defendant, we determine whether the defendant conclusively disproved an element of the plaintiff's claim or conclusively proved every element of an affirmative defense. 2. We're nearly obsessed with crime. The Tatums' first appellate issue argues that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their libel claims. But the court went on to hold that "to the extent that the column states that the Tatums acted deceptively, it is true." Public figure status is a question of law for the court. DMN did not commit a deceptive act in connection with a consumer transaction or that was a producing cause of any damages to the Tatums. Based on the above, we conclude that the expert affidavits are not speculative and the trial court did not err by overruling appellees' objections. Thus, Blow had a motive not to learn if there was any explanation for the way the Tatums chose to write the obituary other than the supposed desire to deceive the obituary's readers. Bentley, 94 S.W.3d at 591 (footnotes omitted). Search by Name. a. 0 You can explore additional available newsletters here. Id. It took a while for honesty to come to the AIDS epidemic. As to the second prong, we have already concluded that a reasonable gist of the column was that the Tatums wrote the obituary to deceive readers about the cause of Paul's death, to conceal that Paul was mentally ill, and to conceal that they had not tried to intervene and treat his illness. In that case, Dr. Neely was disciplined for self-prescribing medications, but a news broadcast about him could reasonably have been understood to report that he was actually disciplined for operating on patients while using dangerous drugs or controlled substances. See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 62; Bentley, 94 S.W.3d at 57985. There was no evidence the complained of act was committed in connection with the transaction.. Real Estate & Property Law Contact us. He testified that he knew that Bruce Tomaso and Kevin Sherrington looked into Paul's death, and that he could not remember specifically which of them provided him with the information he used in the column. This argument misses the point. Kass reviewed Cargill's report about the accident, interviewed the Tatums, reviewed Paul's conduct before and after the accident as reported by his friends, and reviewed other documents such as Paul's medical history and death certificate. b. There was a car crash, all right, but death came from a self-inflicted gunshot wound [page break] in a time of remorse afterward. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. In adopting the verifiable as false test in Bentley and Neely, the Texas Supreme Court relied on the United States Supreme Court's decision in Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1 (1990). We conclude otherwise. That appeal is also being decided today, John Tatum and Mary Ann Tatum v. Julie Hersh, No. Blow, who did not contact the Tatums before writing his column, called for the public to more openly discuss mental illness, which is often a factor in suicides. See id. Waste Mgmt. Civ. But what was apparent to every witness on the scene that day was that Pillsbury had walked a few paces from his car and shot himself. More specifically, the column's first four paragraphs state Blow's opinion that people generally consider a death by suicide worthy of deception and mention honesty and being open about other causes of death. About three months later, they filed an amended traditional and no-evidence summary judgment motion. As explained above, a false gist is substantially true and nonactionable if it is no more damaging to the plaintiff's reputation than a truthful publication would have been. filed), we noted that "[p]lacing the burden of proving truth or falsity is a complex . I'm a big admirer of Julie Hersh. ); see also Civ. endstream endobj startxref In two of their cases, the court held that statements accusing someone of causing someone else to commit suicide were nonactionable opinions because the cause of a suicide is not objectively verifiable. I think it's part of our survival mechanism. Specifically, the Tatums produced evidence that Blow did not contact them to determine the basis for their choice of words in Paul's obituary, and that this failure to contact them was a breach of journalistic standards and the newspaper's own policies. We disagree. (quoting Bell Publ'g Co. v. Garrett Eng'g Co., 170 S.W.2d 197, 204 (Tex.1943)). Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 70. Did the Tatums raise a genuine fact issue regarding whether the column was about them? Find an Obituary. (A public controversy is not simply a matter of interest to the public; it must be a real dispute, the outcome of which affects the general public or some segment of it in an appreciable way.). Although appellees contend that the column's gist does not include any comment on the Tatums' character or their actions, we disagree. The 2010 column, Shrouding suicide leaves its danger unaddressed, urged the public to talk more openly about suicide. Some obituary readers tell me they feel guilty for having such curiosity about how people died. App.Dallas Dec. 30, 2015, pet. Learn more about FindLaws newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. walkers gluten free shortbread / April 12, 2022 . Texas Supreme Court dismisses defamation lawsuit against The Dallas Morning News John and Mary Ann Tatum, whose 17-year-old son shot himself, sued The News in 2011 alleging that a. Tobacco Co. v. Grinnell, 951 S.W.2d 420, 425 (Tex.1997). The medical examiner ruled the teens death a suicide. We affirm the judgment to the extent it orders the Tatums to take nothing on their DTPA claims. He was born on January 12, 1953 to Albert Tatum and . Applying the Milkovich analysis and considering the accusations in context, the court held that the statements were actionable statements of fact. Public Benefits There was also evidence from which a reasonable jury could find that a proper investigation would have revealed that the Tatums had a good faith belief that Paul's death was in fact caused by injuries sustained in a car accident. For this privilege to apply, however, the law requires that the comment at issue purported to be, and was, only a fair, true and impartial report of what was stated at the meeting, regardless of whether the facts under discussion at such meeting were in fact true, unless the report was made with malice. Denton Publ'g Co., 460 S.W.2d at 883. The official Dallas Morning News Twitter account. The Supreme Court has held that a defamation plaintiff must prove falsity if (i) the plaintiff is a public figure, or (ii) the defendant is a media defendant and the statement involves a matter of public concern. Blow explained that he acted differently in investigating this column because he had been told that Paul's family did not want to discuss the matter. We conclude that there was more than a scintilla of evidence showing more than a mere failure to conduct a reasonable investigation. The truth of the column's gist hinges on whether the Tatums intended to deceive when they wrote the obituary, not necessarily on the strength of the scientific evidence supporting their belief about the cause of Paul's suicide. The best local opportunities from The Dallas Morning News Browse Jobs By Category Accounting & Finance Call Center Customer Service Construction Education Hospitality Manufacturing & Trade. Listen, the last thing I want to do is put guilt on the family of suicide victims. But the Tatums must prove actual malice to recover exemplary damages if the defamatory statement involved a matter of public concern (as opposed to a public controversy) and appellees are media defendants. Admiralty & Maritime Law It then denied rehearing on September 28, 2018 File Closed Opinions Issued Case Events Parties and Counsel Opinions May 11, 2018 Government Law But it's such a missed opportunity to educate.. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the columns accusation of deception was reasonably capable of injuring the Tatums standing in the community but that Blows implicit statement that the Tatum acted deceptively was an opinion and thus not actionable. 186 0 obj <> endobj featuring summaries of federal and state We're open these days with just about every form of death except onesuicide. Prac. We therefore do not address whether those categories apply here. Prac. Bankruptcy We next ask whether there was evidence that the column's gist was false. Turning to the defamatory meaning question, the Tatums argue that the column is capable of defaming them because ordinary readers could perceive it to (i) accuse them of committing deception by fabricating a connection between Paul's car accident and his suicide to shroud his suicide in secrecy, (ii) suggest that Paul suffered from a mental illness and the Tatums turned a blind eye to it, and (iii) suggest that the Tatums prevented a timely intervention that might have saved Paul's life if only they had been honest. at 10. Intellectual Property In that case, Milkovich sued Lorain for publishing an article that essentially accused him of perjury. The Tatums wrote an obituary for Paul and paid DMN to publish the obituary in the Dallas Morning News newspaper. Corporate Compliance The Tatums argue that the following evidence raises a genuine fact issue as to the elements of negligence and actual malice: An expert witness testified by affidavit that appellees' failure to contact the Tatums for an explanation of the obituary before publishing the column fell short of journalistic standards promulgated by DMN and by the Society of Professional Journalism. Real Estate Law A Dallas County trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit against The News. 73.001; Am. Heritage Capital, 436 S.W.3d at 875. The Tatums' attorney, Joe Sibley, said he could not comment since The News was a party to the lawsuit. For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that their cases are distinguishable or otherwise unpersuasive. A reasonable juror could conclude that Blow was not honest when he testified about the sources of his information about Paul's death. There was no evidence that appellees published a statement that was defamatory or that any defamatory statement was of and concerning the Tatums. Similarly, in Bentley the Texas Supreme Court considered whether repeated statements that a particular judge was corrupt were nonactionable statements of opinion. The Tatums' friend Lee Simpson testified by affidavit that he was contacted by Tomaso about Paul's death and that Tomaso did not ask him whether the Tatum family wanted to be contacted. But averting our eyes from the reality of suicide only puts more lives at risk. See Civ. The trial court granted Defendant's motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' action under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. Civ. Grief Support. If the plaintiff is a public official or a public figure, the required culpability is elevated from negligence to actual malice; that is, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant published the defamatory statement with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard as to whether it was true or false. Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 66 n.12 (the distinctions among the varying burdens of proof as to truth or falsity are less material at summary judgment). Honesty is the first step. By juxtaposing Paul's story with this discussion, the column invites the reader to associate Paul's suicide with mental illness and the Tatums with those who do not engage in life saving frank discussion and timely intervention. The closing line, Honesty is the first step, also invites the reader to contrast honesty with a dishonest obituary published about Paul's death. Appellees also argue on appeal that any libel per quod claim fails because the Tatums did not plead or prove special damages. of Tex., Inc., 434 S.W.3d at 15657. A reasonable juror could conclude that a hypothetically true column would have been less damaging to the Tatums' reputation because it would have mentioned that the Tatums claimed to have written the obituary in a good faith belief in its truth and without an intent to deceive. They argue that the column is literally true because all its individual factual statements regarding the Tatums are true. The distance between the column's discussion of Paul's case and its discussion of mental illness is not so great that a reader of ordinary intelligence could not connect the two, and the closing exhortation for frank discussion, timely intervention, and honesty tends to tie the end of the column back to the two specific illustrations of deception. Saying someone is popular is not inconsistent with the premise that he is mentally ill, nor is asserting that someone committed suicide out of remorse over a car crash inconsistent with the premise that he was mentally ill. Because we conclude that the column is capable of a defamatory meaning, there is at least a fact issue regarding this element, and appellees' traditional and no-evidence grounds attacking that element cannot support the trial court's judgment.4. Denton publishing Co. is still controlling law the reality of suicide only puts more lives at risk sued for! From the reality of suicide victims brain injury that made him suicidal News daily... ( Tex.2006 ) apply here basis for any of its rulings January 12, 1953 to Albert Tatum and,. Prove special damages only that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment motion, 204 ( )... 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