Rancho La Costa, Inc. v. Superior Court

Nature of Proceedings:

Plaintiffs in a libel action seek from this court a writ of mandate to compel the trial court to vacate its order of summary adjudication that plaintiffs are public figures and that the defendants’ publication was privileged under California Civil Code section 47, subdivision 3. We grant the writ.

History:

The plaintiffs are five corporations and four individuals. For simplicity, the corporate plaintiffs will be referred to collectively as the singular La Costa. The four individual plaintiffs, Merv Adelson, Irwin Molasky, Allard Roen and Mo Dalitz, were the organizers, creators and officers of the corporate plaintiffs.

In March 1975, real parties in interest (defendants) published an article on its face libelous of plaintiffs. The article accused the owners of the resort known as La Costa, including plaintiffs Adelson, Molasky, Roen and Dalitz, who were mentioned by name, of being mobsters, gangsters, members of organized crime and charged that the La Costa resort itself is an organized crime headquarters. The article sought to implicate plaintiffs in the “Watergate” scandal, nationwide bank failures, securities frauds totaling $50 billion,…