Batson v. Shiflett3/12/1992
the statements in Flyer No. 3 conveyed false representations of fact sufficient to sustain this element of the defamation action.
C. ACTUAL MALICE
To prove defamation in the context of a labor dispute, the plaintiff must prove that the statements were made with "actual malice," as defined in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, supra. See Linn, 383 U.S. at 65, 86 S.Ct. at 664, 15 L.Ed.2d at 591. "Actual malice," sometimes referred to as constitutional malice, is established by clear and convincing evidence that a statement was made "with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not." New York Times, 376 U.S. at 279-80, 84 S.Ct. at 725-26, 11 L.Ed.2d at 706. Subsequent Supreme Court cases have explicated the standard of "actual malice." See Herbert v. Lando, 441 U.S. 153, 160, 99 S.Ct. 1635, 1640, 60 L.Ed.2d 115, 124 (1979) (actual malice requires examination of "the conduct and state of mind" of the publisher and a showing that the publisher "must know or have reason to suspect that his publication is false."); Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 335 n. 6, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 3004 n. 6, 41 L.Ed.2d 789, 802 n. 6 (1974) ("subjective awareness of probable falsity" constitutes actual malice); St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 731, 88 S.Ct. 1323, 1325, 20 L.Ed.2d 262, 267 (1968) (publishing with "serious doubts as to the truth of publication . . . shows reckless disregard for truth or falsity and demonstrates actual malice."); Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 74, 85 S.Ct. 209, 216, 13 L.Ed.2d 125, 133 (1964) ("false statements made with high degree of awareness of their probable falsity" constitutes actual malice). The Court recently reiterated
that while "reckless disregard for the truth" is not easily defined, it does mean having either "high degree of awareness of . . . probable falsity" or "entertain serious doubts" as to the truth of the challenged statements. Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc. v. Connaughton, 491 U.S. 657, 667, 109 S.Ct. 2678, 2685-86, 105 L.Ed.2d 562, 576 (1989).
In Capital-Gazette Newspapers v. Stack, 293 Md. 528, 445 A.2d 1038, cert. denied, 459 U.S. 989, 103 S.Ct. 344, 74 L.Ed.2d 384 (1982), a newspaper published an editorial accusing a State senatorial candidate of making false statements in his campaign. There, we summarized what is insufficient to constitute actual malice:
"'Actual malice' cannot be established merely by showing that: the publication was erroneous, derogatory or untrue, the publisher acted out of ill will, hatred or a desire to injure the official, the publisher acted negligently, the publisher acted in reliance on the unverified statement of a third party without personal knowledge of the subject matter of the defamatory statement, or the publisher acted without undertaking the investigation that would have been made by a reasonably prudent person. Moreover, malice is not established if there is evidence to show that the publisher acted on a reasonable belief that the defamatory material was '"substantially correct"' and 'there was no evidence to impeach the [publisher's] good faith.'"
Id. at 539-40, 445 A.2d at 1044 (citations omitted). Applying these principles in Stack, we determined that the evidence showed that the publisher acted on a reasonable belief that the statements in the editorial were substantially correct, and that there was no evidence to impeach the publisher's good faith. Thus, we found insufficient evidence upon which to find the publisher liable for defamation and upheld the trial court's grant of the publisher's motion for a directed verdict.
The actua
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