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. Personal Injury 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.. The column (i) uses the word deception, (ii) juxtaposes the discussion of Paul's suicide and obituary with the story of the fabrication after Ted Pillsbury's suicide, and (iii) juxtaposes the discussion of Paul's suicide and obituary with advocacy regarding secrecy, suicide, and the need for honesty and intervention. denied). We remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. 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. DMN also asserted the following no-evidence grounds: There was no evidence that the Tatums were consumers. Even assuming that investigations by the police and the medical examiner are official proceedings, the column does not purport to report about those proceedings. Three, the minister testified by affidavit that after he read Blow's column he got into his car and drove directly to the Tatums' house, found that they were not at home, and called them about the column. Accordingly, because there is no evidence of a public controversy that could make the Tatums limited-purpose public figures, we conclude that the Tatums are private figures for purposes of this summary judgment appeal. The case of Laird v. Tatum raised questions about the use of surveillance by the military and how it might affect the First. The Tatums, however, present several responsive arguments, including that the column is not an account of official proceedings at all. Unlike the current trend of local news being acquired by private equity firms and national chains, we have been a family-controlled company for over 135 years. I think the need to know is wired deeply in us. [1] The Dallas woman first went public with her story of depression and suicide attempts in my column three years ago. c.Was the column's gist substantially true? Landfill, Inc., 434 S.W.3d 142, 15657 (Tex.2014) (citing Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 349 (1974)). Commercial Record Daily Business newspaper published in Dallas, Texas. We conclude that summary judgment was proper as to the Tatums' DTPA claims but not as to their libel claims. The court then vacated its judgment and stayed the case pending the resolution of a defamation case then pending in the Texas Supreme Court. Civ. See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 72. Id. Appellees filed a traditional and no-evidence summary judgment motion. 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.. The Tatums construed the column to (i) accuse them of lying about the cause of Paul's death, (ii) state falsely that Paul committed suicide in a time of remorse over the accident, (iii) insinuate that Paul was mentally ill, and (iv) suggest that the Tatums were responsible for Paul's death and had done a disservice to others by failing to use his obituary as a platform to educate the world about mental illness and suicide. Contracts They argue that the column's gist includes an assertion that they falsely ascribed Paul's death to injuries sustained in an automobile accident with the intent to mislead and deceive readers and to cover up his suicide. Applying Neely here, we conclude that a reasonable factfinder could find that the column's false gist, as discussed above, was more damaging to the Tatums' reputation than a hypothetical truthful account that acknowledged their claims that they reached a good faith conclusion about the cause of Paul's suicide and did not accuse them of deception. Morning News, Inc., 493 S.W.3d 646, see flags on bad law, and search Casetext's comprehensive legal database . 05-14-01017-CV, 2015 WL 9582903, at *5 (Tex. Appellees, however, do not contend that the Tatums are public officials or general-purpose public figures. 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. With staffers in D-FW, Austin, Washington and along the Mexican border, we follow the story whatever it goes to deliver the deepest reporting in the Lone Star State. 12, 2007, pet. On Monday, May 17, 2010, the Tatums were out of town at another son's graduation, and Paul was home alone. 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? See id. Blow's controversial practice of attacking obituaries. In their affidavits, both Tatums said that they would not have published the obituary as worded if they had known that DMN had someone on staff who had a history of criticizing obituaries like Steve Blow.. a. Prac. Transportation Law The Neely court explained the fair comment privilege as follows: Comments based on substantially true facts are privileged if fair; comments that assert or affirm false statements of fact are not privileged. Their traditional grounds were: The column was not of and concerning the Tatums. Appellees also assert that the obituary's omission of Paul's suicide shows that it was in fact a deception. But as discussed above, deception implies intent to deceive, and the Tatums raised a genuine fact issue as to whether they had such an intent. Karen Misko took the post to be directed at her and sued Johns for libel. But because the accusation was an opinion, the trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of Petitioners. Our work has been recognized with nine Pulitzer Priz Location & Hours 1954 Commerce St Dallas, TX 75201 Prac. We must take evidence favorable to the nonmovant as true, and we must indulge every reasonable inference and resolve every doubt in the nonmovant's favor. Id. See Gilbert Tex. She has since written a book, Struck by Living. Specifically, the first affidavit is by Dr. Robert Cargill, who possesses a Ph.D. in bioengineering. Naturally, with such a well-known figure, the truth quickly came out. See Civ. 6. Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 61. at 66. Nevertheless, the Milkovich Court concluded that calling someone a liar and accusing someone of perjury are both sufficiently verifiable to support a defamation claim. Read Tatum v. Dall. It has received nine Pulitzer Prizes since 1986, as well. Before Justices Lang, Fillmore, and Whitehill Opinion by Justice Whitehill 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. Like a cat putting its nose to the wind, that curiosity is part of how we gauge the danger out there for ourselves and our loved ones. 17.46(b)(24); see also Brennan v. Manning, No. 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 On that occasion, he said, he attempted to contact the author of one of the obituaries. ", "We are sorry for the Tatum family's tragic loss of their son," said Mike Wilson, editor of The News. This is some evidence of actual malice. 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. The Tatums' live pleading asserted Libel as count 1 and Libel per se as count 2. Turner, 38 S.W.3d at 114. 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. Ironically, the first person I knew to die of AIDS was said to have cancer. The 2010 column, Shrouding suicide leaves its danger unaddressed, urged the public to talk more openly about suicide. We're nearly obsessed with crime. Moved Permanently. at *13. But private figures suing a media defendant (as we have here) must prove only negligence to recover defamation damages. 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. In D Magazine Partners we said that the supreme court's 2000 Turner opinion suggests that lack of privilege might be an element of a defamation plaintiff's case, while its 2013 Neely opinion indicates that privilege is a defense. 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. The Tatums sued Julie Hersh in a separate lawsuit. Rather, the Tatums contend that DMN should have disclosed that its columnist, Blow, had previously written columns critical of obituaries that had appeared in the newspaper. Election Law WFAATV, Inc. v. McLemore, 978 S.W.2d 568, 571 (Tex.1998). See id. I think it's part of our survival mechanism. To the contrary, the column's tone is generally sober, and it purports to be grounded in factual details such as the circumstances of Pillsbury's and Paul's deaths, data about the prevalence of suicide among young people, and Julie Hersh's public efforts to reduce the shame and stigma surrounding mental illness. Smith v. Deneve, 285 S.W.3d 904, 909 (Tex.App.Dallas 2009, no pet.). Newspapers don't write about suicides unless they involve a public figure or happen in a very public way. Believing that Paul's suicide was caused by a brain injury he sustained in the earlier automobile accident, the Tatums stated in the obituary that Paul died "as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident." Legal Ethics Although appellees contend that the column's gist does not include any comment on the Tatums' character or their actions, we disagree. Accordingly, the court held that the columns were nonactionable opinions. Bentley, 94 S.W.3d at 591; see also N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 27980 (1964). THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, INC. AND STEVE BLOW v. JOHN TATUM AND MARY ANN TATUM; from Dallas County; 5th Court of Appeals District (05-14-01017-CV, 493 SW3d 646, 12-30-15) We do not address this question here, however, because we conclude that the Tatums raised a genuine fact issue regarding falsity even if they bore the burden. 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. 186 0 obj <> endobj 0 But the standards governing the law of defamation are not among them. 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. They argue that the column is literally true because all its individual factual statements regarding the Tatums are true. The Tatums also filed copies of a number of emails bearing on the subject. Appellees argue that a public controversy existed over the official cause of Paul's death. Did appellees conclusively prove the fair comment privilege? %%EOF The Tatums' first appellate issue argues that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their libel claims. Id. We agree with the Tatums' second argument and thus do not address their first. Constitutional Law The trial court granted Defendant's motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' action under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. We thus conclude that Denton Publishing Co. is still controlling law. The official Dallas Morning News Twitter account. 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. Prac. 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. , 909 ( Tex.App.Dallas 2009, no its individual factual statements regarding the,. Libel as count 1 and libel per se as count 1 and libel per se as 1... Sued Johns for libel because the accusation was an opinion, the truth quickly out! Brennan v. Manning, no separate lawsuit, however, present several responsive arguments, including that Tatums. Public controversy existed over the official cause of Paul 's death 27980 ( 1964 ) public way truth! ' second argument and thus do not address their first the official cause Paul... To know is wired deeply in us agree with the Tatums, however, present responsive! 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