(quoting Bell Publ'g Co. v. Garrett Eng'g Co., 170 S.W.2d 197, 204 (Tex.1943)). The court can see if the press was covering the debate, reporting what people were saying and uncovering facts and theories to help the public formulate some judgment. Some obituary readers tell me they feel guilty for having such curiosity about how people died. The court did not state the basis for any of its rulings. We are unpersuaded by appellees' contrary arguments. Become a business insider with the latest news. Our work has been recognized with nine Pulitzer Priz Location & Hours 1954 Commerce St Dallas, TX 75201 Constr., L.P. v. Underwriters at Lloyd's London, 327 S.W.3d 118, 127 (Tex.2010) (citing dictionaries as aids to interpreting an insurance policy). The Tatums assert two appellate issues: (1) The trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their libel claims; and (2) the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their DTPA claims. 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. Id. The Tatums argue that appellees bear the burden of proof on truth or substantial truth, so the no-evidence ground is invalid. Based on that evidence, the court concluded that a factfinder could find that the false gistthat Neely was disciplined for operating while using drugswas more damaging to Neely's reputation than the truththat Neely was disciplined for self-prescribing medications. Rather, we conclude only that it is capable of having that meaning. Did the Tatums raise a genuine fact issue that appellees acted with the necessary degree of culpability? Am. Their traditional grounds were: The column was not of and concerning the Tatums. Id. In their second appellate issue, the Tatums contend that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their DTPA claims against DMN. 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. Products Liability That appeal is also being decided today, John Tatum and Mary Ann Tatum v. Julie Hersh, No. Mar. Corporate Compliance Insurance Law John and Mary Ann Tatum, whose 17-year-old son shot himself, sued The News and now-retired Metro columnist Steve Blow in 2011 over allegations that the column accused the couple of lying about their son's death. See id. And the secrecy surrounding suicide leaves us greatly underestimating the danger there. Free Newsletters 4. 17.50(a)(1)(A)(B). at *5. Founded in 1885, The Dallas Morning is North Texas' largest news team. There was no evidence that appellees published a false statement of fact. We reject the Tatums' second appellate issue. 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. The gist also implies that the explanation the Tatums gave for the cause of Paul's death was false and that Paul committed suicide because of remorse rather than because of injuries suffered in the auto accident. We agree with the Tatums. We agree with the Tatums. A reasonable juror could conclude that Blow was not honest when he testified about the sources of his information about Paul's death. 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. There was a car crash, all right, but death came from a self-inflicted gunshot wound [page break] in a time of remorse afterward. See id. at 122627. DC-11-07371 . The hypothetical person of ordinary intelligence is one who exercises care and prudence, but not omniscience, when evaluating an allegedly defamatory communication. Yet we're nearly blind to the greater threat of self-inflicted violence. Are the column's statements about the Tatums nonactionable opinions? Without naming the Tatums, Blow quoted from the obituary, which said the teen died from injuries sustained in a car accident, and wrote that suicide remains cloaked in such secrecy, if not outright deception., The court's opinion said that in accusing the Tatums of deception, the column was reasonably capable of being defamatory. The trial court granted Defendant's motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' action under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. 16-0098 Supreme Court of Texas May 11, 2018. "Walking along side you" | 24 Hour Line: 086 111 1380 | Essential Service provider, available to families during COVID 19 LOCK DOWN We also agree with the Tatums' second and third points that a person of ordinary intelligence could construe the column to suggest that Paul suffered from mental illness, and that the Tatums turned a blind eye to it and may have missed an opportunity to intervene and save his life. Specifically, the following circumstantial evidence bears on, or could have affected, the Tatums' state of mind when they wrote the obituary and supports the verifiability of the column's gist: (i) the Tatums searched for answers to the question of why Paul did it; (ii) both Tatumsand we note that Mary Ann Tatum is a mental health professionaltestified that Paul had no history of mental illness associated with suicidal behavior; (iii) Paul left no suicide note; (iv) Paul's texts to friends after the accident made it seem that something had happened in the accident to change his state of mind; (v) the vehicle's condition made it seem probable that Paul hit his head in the accident; and (vi) the Tatums researched online and discovered that emerging scientific data links brain injury to suicidal behavior. Heritage Capital, 436 S.W.3d at 875. See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 61. The summary judgment evidence includes an excerpt from Blow's deposition in which he testified about another time when he wrote a column about two obituaries that had been published about the same decedent. (3)the alleged defamation must be germane to the plaintiff's participation in the controversy. at 1019. %PDF-1.5 % 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. Appellees filed a traditional and no-evidence summary judgment motion. 203 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<5137B43803F1ED67129ECA0B47F79974>]/Index[186 34]/Info 185 0 R/Length 86/Prev 175724/Root 187 0 R/Size 220/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream We review a summary judgment de novo. [1] The Dallas woman first went public with her story of depression and suicide attempts in my column three years ago. 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 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. See Pickens v. Cordia, 433 S.W.3d 179, 185 (Tex.App.Dallas 2014, no pet.) Listen, the last thing I want to do is put guilt on the family of suicide victims. More than 1,000 people attended Paul's funeral. Through honesty, she's trying to erase some of the shame and stigma that compounds and prolongs mental illness. Find an Obituary. Appellees further argue that the column does not omit or juxtapose facts in such a way as to make its gist false. To be actionable defamation, a statement must be a statement of verifiable fact rather than opinion. Appellees also argue on appeal that any libel per quod claim fails because the Tatums did not plead or prove special damages. 3. denied) (objection that opinions are speculative can be raised for the first time on appeal). 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. The Tatums argue that an accusation of deception is verifiable and therefore actionable, while appellees argue that it is not. Although appellees contend that the column's gist does not include any comment on the Tatums' character or their actions, we disagree. To support their premise, appellees point to evidence that some people in the community were discussing Paul's suicide before the column was published. The Seventh Circuit said in dicta that these statements were probably nonactionable as obvious statements of opinion, but the court held that Haynes's claims failed because he alleged no pecuniary injury from these statements. Newspapers, Inc. v. Matthews, 339 S.W.2d 890, 893 (Tex.1960). %%EOF New York Times v. Sullivan-Alabama city commissioner sued NY Times -said an ad they published describing mistreatment of African American students had defamed him by implication-some of the statements in the ad were false or exaggerated, but those were small details The opinion is strong affirmation of the fundamental importance of freedom of speech to civil discourse in our state.". At issue is. The column was privileged as a fair, true, and impartial account of official proceedings. Turner v. KTRK Television, Inc., 38 S.W.3d 103, 119 (Tex.2000). 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. Trusts & Estates Because we see no matching argument in appellees' amended motion for summary judgment, that argument is not properly before us. at 62 (In this defamation suit involving two physicians, we clarify a longstanding distinction between defamation and defamation per se). Stay up-to-date with how the law affects your life. We conclude otherwise. We're open these days with just about every form of death except onesuicide. Viewed in the light most favorable to the Tatums, the evidence raised a genuine issue of material fact as to the actual malice element. But, as Neely holds, a publication's gist can be false through the omission or juxtaposition of facts, even though the publication's individual statements considered in isolation are literally true. We disagree. Prac. Steve Blow is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Read Tatum v. Dall. He was born on January 12, 1953 to Albert Tatum and . Cf. Thus, there is evidence that Blow did not investigate this column with the same thoroughness that he did for a previous column and that his explanation for the difference was not true. Argued January 10, 2018. The summary judgment evidence conflicts on certain points regarding the newspaper's investigation into Paul's death and the manner in which Blow learned about the immediate cause of Paul's death. But a statement couched as an opinion may be actionable if it expressly or implicitly asserts facts that can be objectively verified. 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. Supreme Court of Texas. Id. Two, they did not mention suicide in the obituary because (i) they believed it would give a false impression that Paul committed suicide as a result of depression or other mental illness and (ii) they did not feel it would honor Paul's memory to include morbid details about his death or to include overly scientific information. In part, we don't talk about suicide because we don't talk about the illness that often underlies itmental illness. We next consider appellees' summary judgment ground that the column contains only nonactionable opinions. 7. 5. The Tatums timely filed a second notice of appeal. We disagree. 0 There is also evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could conclude that Blow had a motive to avoid learning any additional facts about Paul's death. They also produced evidence from which a reasonable jury could find that (i) Blow misrepresented his investigation and sources of information and (ii) Blow had some motive not to probe into the column's truth regarding the Tatums and the obituary. But I don't think we should feel embarrassment at all. Did appellees conclusively prove the official proceeding privilege? This argument misses the point. 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. If a defamatory statement about a private figure involves a matter of public concern, however, and the defendant is a media defendant, the private figure plaintiff must prove actual malice to recover punitive damages. We may consult dictionaries to determine the generally accepted or commonly understood meaning of words. Civ. I understand why people don't include it, she told me. This is some evidence of actual malice. 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. Id. Prac. See Deceive, The New Oxford American Dictionary (cause (someone) to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage). All rights reserved. New Times, Inc. v. Isaacks, 146 S.W.3d 144, 157 (Tex.2004). May 11, 2018. 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. Prac. The above parts alone could cause a person of ordinary intelligence to read the column as accusing the Tatums of deceit by writing an obituary that stated a false cause of Paul's death and concealed the true cause of his death (for their own self-benefit and to the detriment of society as a whole). Based on the above, we conclude that the expert affidavits are not speculative and the trial court did not err by overruling appellees' objections. 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. Family Law Neely v. Wilson, 418 S.W.3d 52, 59 (Tex.2013). Our supreme court, however, has embraced the Milkovich verifiability test. (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.). P. 166a(i). Turner, 38 S.W.3d at 114. We determine substantial truth by assessing the publication's gist. See id. Moreover, a witness named Jenyce Gush testified by deposition that she read Paul's obituary before Blow's column was published, and that when Blow's column was published she knew which obituary he was referring to. These matters create a genuine fact issue regarding whether the column's contents would have warned a reasonably prudent publisher of its defamatory potential. In addition to their libel claims, the Tatums also asserted DTPA claims against DMN. 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. 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. Environmental Law Id. For the reasons discussed below, we accept the former and reject the latter. Sysco Food Servs., Inc. v. Trapnell, 890 S.W.2d 796, 800 (Tex.1994) A matter is conclusively established if ordinary minds could not differ as to the conclusion to be drawn from the evidence. In re Estate of Hendler, 316 S.W.3d 703, 707 (Tex.App.Dallas 2010, no pet.). Prac. See id. DMN also asserted the following no-evidence grounds: There was no evidence that the Tatums were consumers. 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. The Tatums respond to appellees' fair comment privilege theory by arguing that (i) the column is not on a matter of public concern to the extent it concerns them, and (ii) the column is not a fair comment because it is not true. Austin v. Inet Techs., Inc., 118 S.W.3d 491, 496 (Tex.App.Dallas 2003, no pet.). Thus, they must prove only negligence to recover compensatory damages. Sch. Moved Permanently. 73.002(b)(1)(B). walkers gluten free shortbread / April 12, 2022 . We are unpersuaded. About three months later, they filed an amended traditional and no-evidence summary judgment motion. Nonetheless, a journalist may not omit and juxtapose facts in such a way as to make the facts reported convey a false gist or meaning. The new Dallas Morning News app combines two apps into one. The official Dallas Morning News Twitter account. The medical examiner ruled the teens death a suicide. Whether a publication is capable of a defamatory meaning is initially a question for the court. We recently cited Lipsky and placed the burden of proving falsity on the plaintiff in a libel case involving the Texas Citizens Participation Act, Civ. Securities Law Posted By : / chsaa basketball rule book /; Under :international cultureinternational culture In that case, Milkovich sued Lorain for publishing an article that essentially accused him of perjury. I think the need to know is wired deeply in us. Injury Law Bankruptcy 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. A. There was no evidence that appellees published a statement that was defamatory or that any defamatory statement was of and concerning the Tatums. Whether a statement is a statement of fact or opinion is a question of law. 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.. To the extent West is similar to the instant case, we disagree with it. 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. We assume without deciding that the defamatory publication in this case generally involved a matter of public concern (preventing suicides), and the Tatums do not dispute that appellees are media defendants. 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. & Com.Code Ann. Am. I think it's part of our survival mechanism. 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. dallas morning news v tatum oyezitalian catering delray beach. There was a page break in the middle of the column, and a slightly different headline appeared over the remainder of the column when it resumed on another page: Shrouding suicide in secrecy leaves its danger unaddressed. The column, with emphasis added, stated as follows: So I guess we're down to just one form of death still considered worthy of deception. In two appellate issues, the Tatums urge that the trial court erred in granting the summary judgment dismissing their libel and DTPA claims. But the standards governing the law of defamation are not among them. The Tatums wrote an obituary for Paul and paid DMN to publish the obituary in the Dallas Morning News newspaper. Sympathy Ideas. 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. Morbid curiosity, they call it apologetically. Id. D Magazine Partners, 2015 WL 5156908, at *7. a. On June 20, 2010Father's Day, and about one month after Paul's suicidethe paper published a column by Blow entitled "Shrouding Suicide Leaves its Danger Unaddressed." 16-0098 Decided: May 11, 2018 JUSTICE BOYD, joined by JUSTICE LEHRMANN and JUSTICE BLACKLOCK, concurring. Supreme Court of Texas. 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. Education Law The column's headline was Shrouding suicide leaves its danger unaddressed. (Emphasis added). hbbd``b`@q?`]$^@' BD A:X %@b5$t.#'PFF 6 at 72. The trial court later lifted the stay and again rendered a take-nothing summary judgment against the Tatums. 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. In this libel-by-implication case, a column written by Steve Blow and published by The Dallas Morning News (collectively, Petitioners) was reasonably capable of meaning that John and Mary Ann Tatum acted deceptively and that the accusation of deception was reasonably capable of defaming the Tatums. We therefore decline to follow West. In that case, Tracy Johns posted an internet message under the heading GeneralMunchausen Syndrome by Proxy that read, in part, Has anyone ever known anyone with this disease/issue? That is, as Neely illustrates, enough to raise a genuine fact issue on the fair comment privilege. 17.46(b)(24) (West 2011). Milkovich lost on summary judgment and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. Star-Telegram (Fort Worth) The Newspaper distributed in Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex counties of Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise. Think of how much more attention we pay to the latter. Benjamin has a Bachelors in philosophy and a Master's in humanities. 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. Based on the record before us, we conclude that the Tatums were not limited-purpose public figures. 71-288 Decided by Burger Court Lower court United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Citation 408 US 1 (1972) Argued Mar 27, 1972 Decided Jun 26, 1972 Advocates Slander is an oral defamation. 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. They also argue that the description of Paul as popular is inconsistent with an imputation of mental illness, as is the assertion that he committed suicide in a time of remorse after a car crash. 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. 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