Yet we're nearly blind to the greater threat of self-inflicted violence. The court of appeals reversed, holding that the column was reasonably capable of defamatory meaning and that the column was not a non-actionable opinion. They also sued DMN for DTPA violations. Sch. They're frustrated when obits don't say. From the people we hire to the way we work, let them tell you how we are different. For example, the internal sources that Blow said he contacted before publishing the column denied having discussed the matter with him. 4. Did appellees conclusively prove the official proceeding privilege? Bentley, 94 S.W.3d at 591. Mack Trucks, Inc. v. Tamez, 206 S.W.3d 572, 582 (Tex.2006). Id. We affirm the judgment to the extent it orders the Tatums to take nothing on their DTPA claims. See id. We agree with the Tatums on all three points. Consumer Law Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1, 16, 1920 & n.6 (1990); Phila. ", "We are sorry for the Tatum family's tragic loss of their son," said Mike Wilson, editor of The News. Nevertheless, the Milkovich Court concluded that calling someone a liar and accusing someone of perjury are both sufficiently verifiable to support a defamation claim. 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. 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. If a defamatory statement is true or substantially true, it is not actionable. 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. Heritage Capital, 436 S.W.3d at 875; Main v. Royall, 348 S.W.3d 381, 389 (Tex.App.Dallas 2011, no pet.). 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. 5. at *13. That lawsuit was dismissed, and the Tatums appealed. 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 Securities Law By pleading Libel and Libel per se separately, they used Libel as a shorthand for libel per quodmuch as the Hancock court used defamation as a shorthand for defamation per quod. See id. 418 S.W.3d at 64. We are unpersuaded by appellees' contrary arguments. There was no evidence the complained of act was a producing cause of the Tatums' damages. Examples of defamation per se include (i) accusing someone of a crime, (ii) accusing someone of having a foul or loathsome disease, (iii) accusing someone of serious sexual misconduct, and (iv) disparaging another's fitness to conduct his or her business or trade. Election Law We conclude only that a reasonable factfinder could conclude that this is the column's gist, and this opinion should not be construed to hold that this is necessarily the column's gist. But it's such a missed opportunity to educate.. at 6364. at 66. Oddly, it was considered an embarrassing way to die. New Times, Inc. v. Isaacks, 146 S.W.3d 144, 157 (Tex.2004). Gacek v. Owens & Minor Distrib., Inc., 666 F.3d 1142, 114748 (8th Cir.2012); Scholz v. Bos. On Appeal from the 68th Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. Whether a publication is capable of a defamatory meaning is initially a question for the court. What is the column's gist regarding the Tatums? 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. We construe an allegedly defamatory publication as a whole in light of the surrounding circumstances and based on how a person of ordinary intelligence would perceive it. Finally, the Tatums point to their minister's testimony that he called Blow to express his concerns about the column and that Blow's first response was, Did I get my facts right?. b. We agree with the Tatums. Specifically, the first affidavit is by Dr. Robert Cargill, who possesses a Ph.D. in bioengineering. See Gilbert Tex. Health Care Law See id. There is thus some evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could find negligence's first prongthat appellees should have known of the defamatory statement's falsity, but failed to use reasonable care to ascertain the truth of the column's gist. We long ago stated that it is the settled law of Texas, that a false statement of fact concerning a public officer, even if made in a discussion of matters of public concern, is not privileged as fair comment.. Milkovich lost on summary judgment and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. We conclude otherwise. at 894. 700 the dvd+ dvd+ monkey monkey the yellow yellow Thus, the column does not qualify for the official proceeding privilege. The Texas Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Friday in which a couple claimed The Dallas Morning News defamed them when it published a column disclosing their decision to omit information about their teenage son's suicide from a paid obituary. 497 U.S. at 1921. We held that these affidavits provided clear and specific evidence that the post was about Misko, even though Misko was not named in it. Justice Brown delivered the unanimous . Entertainment & Sports Law 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. Am. Courthouse News brings us this lawsuit filed two days ago in Dallas County District Court: John Tatum and Mary Ann Tatum v. The Dallas Morning News, inc. and Steve Blow. Id. Thus, unlike the statement, In my opinion Mayor Jones is a liar, the statement, In my opinion Mayor Jones shows his abysmal ignorance by accepting the teachings of Marx and Lenin, would not be actionable. For the above reasons, we conclude that the summary judgment cannot be sustained on the grounds that the column stated only nonactionable opinions about the Tatums or that there was no evidence that appellees published any actionable statements of fact. In addition to their libel claims, the Tatums also asserted DTPA claims against DMN. 73.001 (West 2011). 73.001. Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 61. 0
Waste Mgmt. He then called a friend, and their conversation prompted her and her mother to drive to the Tatums' house during the early morning hours of May 18. Id. Accordingly, the Tatums submitted enough evidence to raise a genuine fact issue regarding whether they believed what they said in the obituary was true, did not intend to mislead or deceive anyone, and did not believe Paul suffered from mental illness. Health Law Appellees, however, cite several cases from other jurisdictions to support their argument that the column's gist is an unverifiable opinion. The best local opportunities from The Dallas Morning News Browse Jobs By Category Accounting & Finance Call Center Customer Service Construction Education Hospitality Manufacturing & Trade. Appellees negated actual malice, defeating the Tatums' libel claims entirely if they are limited-purpose public figures and defeating their exemplary damage claims if they are private figures. Dec 19, 2022 "Sooner or later someone is going to have to give this area credit for good coaching, good kids and good programs." By statute, a newspaper or other periodical enjoys a privilege against libel actions regarding the publication of certain matters, including (i) a fair, true, and impartial account of an official proceeding to administer the law, Civ. (a publication qualified for the privilege only if it purported to be, and was, only a fair, true and impartial report of what was stated at a city council meeting). But the Tatums adduced evidence of more than a mere negligent investigation. See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 63. By using the statement In my opinion Mayor Jones is a liar as an example of an actionable statement of fact, the Court took the position that such a statement can be proven false. Because we see no matching argument in appellees' amended motion for summary judgment, that argument is not properly before us. The Dallas Morning News Homepage. Heritage Capital, 436 S.W.3d at 875. THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, INC. AND STEVE BLOW v. JOHN TATUM AND MARY ANN TATUM Oral argument was held on January 10, 2018. Communications Law P. 166a(i). 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? Prac. 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. Haynes is distinguishable. 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. Speech deals with matters of public concern when it can be fairly considered as relating to any matter of political, social, or other concern to the community or when it is a subject of legitimate news interest; that is, a subject of general interest and of value and concern to the public Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U.S. 443, 453 (2011) (internal quotations and citations omitted). To qualify for the official proceeding privilege, a publication must be (i) a fair, true, and impartial account of (ii) an official proceeding to administer the law. 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. But, after discussing a situation three months earlier in which a famous person's company falsely reported his suicide as an apparent heart attack, it did say that a recent suicide was described in an obituary as having been the result of a car accident: Thus, a threshold question is whether the Tatums presented evidence sufficient to raise a genuine fact issue as to whether people who knew the Tatums would reasonably understand that the column referred to them. One expert explained the severity of Paul's auto accident, and the other opined that Paul committed suicide because of a brain injury sustained in that accident. at 122627. But because the accusation was an opinion, the trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of Petitioners. Fifth District of Texas at Dallas . She has since written a book, Struck by Living. Based on their view of the column's gist, appellees next argue that the cause of Paul's suicide and the Tatums' belief about that cause are irrelevant to the issue of truth. 29, 2013), aff'd, 41 N.E.3d 38 (Mass.2015). Energy, Oil & Gas Law But recent Texas defamation cases may suggest that the plaintiff always has the burden of proving falsity. Did the Tatums raise a genuine fact issue regarding whether the column was about them? Family Law WFAATV, Inc.,978 S.W.2d at 572. c.Did the Tatums raise a genuine fact issue as to negligence and actual malice? Commercial Law 17.50(a)(1)(A)(B). (A publication is of and concerning the plaintiff if persons who knew and were acquainted with him understood from viewing the publication that the defamatory matter referred to him.). Environmental Law See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 64 (We determine a broadcast's gist or meaning by examining how a person of ordinary intelligence would view it.) (footnote omitted). All rights reserved. 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. He was an excellent and popular student, an outstanding athlete, and had no history of mental illness. Id. We agree with the Tatums' second argument and thus do not address their first. It does not mention those proceedings, nor does it report any statements or findings made in the course of those proceedings. In their second appellate issue, the Tatums contend that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their DTPA claims against DMN. at 64. See Tex. Their traditional grounds were: The column was not of and concerning the Tatums. 6. 051400951CV, 2015 WL 5156908, at *5, *8 (Tex.App.Dallas Aug. 28, 2015, pet. 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He was born on January 12, 1953 to Albert Tatum and . Again, a statement is defamatory if it tends to (i) injure the subject's reputation, (ii) expose him to public hatred, contempt, ridicule, or financial injury, or (iii) impeach his honesty, integrity, or virtue. This is some evidence of actual malice. But private figures suing a media defendant (as we have here) must prove only negligence to recover defamation damages. Although there is evidence that people in Paul's high school community were discussing his death generally, and that unspecified others in north Dallas were also discussing it before the column was published, there is no evidence that the cause or manner of Paul's death affected anyone other than the Tatums. We perceive no extravagant exaggeration in the column. Id. In that case, Milkovich sued Lorain for publishing an article that essentially accused him of perjury. Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 63. Appellees also argue that the column cannot reasonably be read to suggest that Paul had a mental illness. 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. Landlord - Tenant featuring summaries of federal and state We next ask whether there was evidence that the column's gist was false. Prac. Accordingly, the court held that the columns were nonactionable opinions. 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. & Com.Code Ann. Bus. Based on the above, we conclude that the expert affidavits are not speculative and the trial court did not err by overruling appellees' objections. The Tatums argue that there was, focusing specifically on the intent that the word deception implies. Animal / Dog Law Hepps ensures that a statement of opinion relating to matters of public concern which does not contain a provably false factual connotation will receive full constitutional protection. The Tatum filed suit alleging libel and libel per se against Petitioners alleging that the column at issue defamed them. Steve Blow is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Appellees argue that a public controversy existed over the official cause of Paul's death. 73.002(b)(2). 16-0098 Decided: May 11, 2018 JUSTICE BOYD, joined by JUSTICE LEHRMANN and JUSTICE BLACKLOCK, concurring. We conclude that the evidence raised a genuine fact issue as to negligence. Neely's substantial truth analysis is instructive. Nonetheless, the Tatums filed affidavits by two experts. Turner, 38 S.W.3d at 114. In May 2010, Paul was a seventeen-year-old high school student. See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 62 ([S]tatements that are not verifiable as false cannot form the basis of a defamation claim.); see also Am. 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