Torts

Brief

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

Procedural History:

• Jury in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County awarded Sullivan damages of $500,000.
• Appealed.
• Affirmed.
• Appealed.
• Reversed and Remanded for further proceedings.

Facts:

• Respondent Sullivan is one of three elected Commissioners of the City of Montgomery, Alabama.
  • His duties include: Supervision of the Police Department, Fire Department, Department of Cemetery and Department of Scales.
• Respondent claims to be libeled by statement in a full-page advertisement that was carried in the New York Times on March 29, 1960.
• The 3^rd and 6^th paragraphs are those in question.
• Plaintiff was not mentioned by name anywhere in the statement but claims these statements attributed misconduct to him as the Montgomery Commissioner who supervised the Police Department.
• The court goes into some detail to dispel most of the allegations from the statements and although they are not entirely false, they are a stretch from the truth in most instances.

Issue:

• Can it be said that Mr. Sullivan was defamed by the statements in the article?

Holding:

• No. Reversed and Remanded.

Reasoning:

• The court points out that the constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with ‘actual malice’, this is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.
• The court is unable to find actual malice through the facts of the present case.
• The court feels the evidence against the Times supports at most a finding of negligence in failing to discover the misstatements, and is constitutionally insufficient to show the recklessness that is required for a finding of actual malice.
• The court was unable to find the statements in reference to the respondent in any way.
• Although the statements may be taken as referring to the police, they do not on their face make even an oblique reference to respondent as an individual.