Maple Lanes, Inc. v. News Media Corp.
Case Date: 06/05/2001
Court: 2nd District Appellate
Docket No: 2-00-0353 Rel
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June 5, 2001 No. 2--00--0353
JUSTICE CALLUM delivered the opinion of the court: Plaintiffs, Maple Lanes, Incorporated, and Kenneth George,Sr., appeal the circuit court's order granting summary judgment todefendant News Media Corporation, the publisher of the RochelleNews Leader (News Media). Plaintiffs alleged that an articlepublished in defendant's newspaper defamed them. The trial courtruled that the allegedly defamatory statement was an accuratesummary of a statement made by defendant Mel Messer, the sheriff ofOgle County, and was therefore protected by the governmental reportprivilege. Plaintiff appeals, contending that the newspaper'sreport changed the "gist or sting" of the statement and wastherefore not privileged. We reverse and remand. On May 9, 1996, the Rochelle News Leader ran a front-pagestory about the arrest of a local restauranteur on drug charges. The story included the following quote attributed to Messer, set inlarge, italic type: "We are targeting businesses that supplementtheir income with cocaine and drug sales, just like we did withFrankies in Rochelle." Plaintiffs sued Messer, the Ogle County sheriff's department,and News Media. Maple Lanes owns Frankies, a restaurant inRochelle. George is the president and principal shareholder ofMaple Lanes. Plaintiffs claimed that Messer's statement, as quotedby the newspaper, was false and defamatory. During lengthy pretrial proceedings, Messer filed an affidavitin which he stated that his actual statement was "We are targetingbusinesses whose employees are supplementing their income withcocaine and drug sales, just like we did with Frankies inRochelle." (Emphasis added.) News Media responded with theaffidavit of Laurie Weissmann Sodaro, the reporter who wrote thestory, in which she averred that she accurately quoted Messer. The trial court dismissed Messer and the sheriff's departmentbecause they were immune from suit and plaintiffs do not appealthat decision. The court also granted summary judgment to NewsMedia on the ground that the allegedly defamatory statement wascovered by the governmental report privilege, also known as the"fair report" privilege. The court held that, assuming thenewspaper story abridged Messer's statement by eliminating thereference to "employees," it did not change the "gist or sting" ofthe statement. Plaintiffs filed a timely notice of appeal. Plaintiffs contend that the trial court erred in holding thatthe fair report privilege immunized News Media for the allegedlydefamatory article. Plaintiffs argue that by deleting the words"employees of" from Messer's statement, defendant changed the gistof the statement by implying that the business as a whole andGeorge in particular participated in or condoned drug sales by itsemployees. The trial court granted News Media's motion for summaryjudgment. Summary judgment is proper when the pleadings,depositions, and affidavits demonstrate that no genuine issue ofmaterial fact exists and that the moving party is entitled tojudgment as a matter of law. 735 ILCS 5/2--1005(c) (West 1998). The court must construe the evidence strictly against the movantand liberally in favor of the nonmoving party. In re Estate ofHoover, 155 Ill. 2d 402, 411 (1993); Ahlgren v. Blue GooseSupermarket, Inc., 266 Ill. App. 3d 154, 159 (1994). We review denovo an order granting summary judgment. Outboard Marine Corp. v.Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., 154 Ill. 2d 90, 102 (1992). The governmental report privilege protects news accounts basedon statements of governmental agencies and officials in theirofficial capacities. Tepper v. Copley Press, Inc., 308 Ill. App.3d 713, 717 (1999). A report is privileged if it is an accurateand complete report of proceedings, or a fair abridgement of them. Tepper, 308 Ill. App. 3d at 717; Restatement (Second) of Torts |
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