Alioto

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION, FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

This is an action for libel in which plaintiff seeks damages for defamatory statements contained in an article published by defendant’s Look Magazine in September, 1969, while plaintiff served as Mayor of San Francisco. This Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (a).

The prior history of this litigation is summarized in the opinion of the Court of Appeals in Alioto v. Cowles Communications, Inc., 519 F.2d 777 (C.A. 9, 1975). The first trial ended in a hung jury. At the second trial the jury returned a special verdict finding the article false in one or more particulars and defamatory, but reached no agreement on the issue of actual malice. The trial judge granted defendant’s motion for judgment n.o.v., but the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded “for a new trial on the sole issue of actual malice.” The third trial which followed again ended in a hung jury. The action came on for a fourth trial before this Court commencing March 21, 1977, both parties having waived the jury.

The Court, after considering all of the evidence and the arguments of counsel, finds and concludes, for the reasons hereafter…