Stockton Newspapers, Inc. v. Superior Court

Must a newspaper be convinced that a charge of official misconduct is true before it may publish conflicting accounts of the charge, free of a claim of libel? We conclude that it need not. We hold that a newspaper is privileged to print a fair report, attributed to a third party, of a claim of official misconduct denied by the official, and is under no duty to resolve conflicting claims of what happened. (Civ. Code, § 47, subd. 3.)

This original proceeding arises out of a libel action by Wilson Stewart, a City of Stockton police officer, against defendant Stockton Newspapers, Inc. (Stockton Newspapers), a newspaper publisher. Stewart claims that a newspaper article published by defendant is libelous because it reports an accusation that he improperly procured a false confession to a crime from a person later released as innocent of the crime. The article presents both the accusations of impropriety, made by the person who confessed, and Stewart’s denial.

Stockton Newspapers was denied a summary judgment (Code Civ. Proc., § 437c), sought on the grounds that the undisputed facts adduced show that the publication of the Stewart article was privileged under Civil Code…