Manguso

Margaret Earley Manguso, a former school teacher, appeals a judgment in favor of Oceanside Unified School District and a former administrator, Ben Fugate, in a libel action in which the trial court erred by refusing to allow her former students to testify, by refusing to instruct the jury on libel per se, and in instructing the jurors to use an unduly restrictive standard of “actual malice.”

This case showcases the legal pitfalls facing a trial court in a defamation action when attempting to determine the appropriate standard of misconduct sufficient to establish liability by overcoming a statutory defense of qualified privilege under Civil Code section 47, subdivision 3, and the degree of fault so as to permit recovery of punitive damages under varying factual circumstances. (Contrast Civ. Code, §§ 3294, subd. (c)(1) and 48a.) The potential for applying the incorrect level of misconduct is enhanced because the different standards have all been historically identified by a common term, “malice.”

Further, compounding the danger for confusion is that the misconduct necessary to establish liability in defamation actions involving public officials and for public figures…