Wampler v. Higgins

In Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990), 497 U.S. 1, 21, 110 S.Ct. 2695, 2707, 111 L.Ed.2d 1, 19, the United States Supreme Court rejected the notion that “an additional separate constitutional privilege for ‘opinion’ is required to ensure the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment” to the United States Constitution. This court later decided, however, that “[r]egardless of the outcome in Milkovich, * * * [t]he Ohio Constitution provides a separate and independent guarantee of protection for opinion ancillary to freedom of the press.” Vail v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co. (1995), 72 Ohio St.3d 279, 281, 649 N.E.2d 182, 185.

Now we are asked to determine whether the Ohio Constitution’s separate and independent protection for opinions protects only those statements uttered by media defendants, such as the newspaper and columnist in Vail, or whether a private citizen unaffiliated with the media, such as the appellee here, may invoke the same independent constitutional protection. We agree with the court of appeals that nonmedia defendants may invoke the Ohio Constitution’s independent protection for opinions and affirm its judgment.

I. Background

On September 25, 1998, the Circleville Herald published a news article entitled “Cardinal Market to close doors.” According to the article, Linda McKee, the owner of Linda’s Cardinal Market, a downtown grocery, had decided to liquidate the business due to declining sales, “a general degeneration in the downtown area, a proliferation of mini marts around town, and changing customer habits.” The article also stated that McKee had been unable to come to terms on a new lease with the owner of the building in which the market was located, appellant Isaac Wampler. McKee stated that she would be unable to afford additional rent that Wampler was seeking under the terms of a proposed new lease. The article quoted Wampler as saying, “I did not want [McKee] to leave,” and “I deeply regret that she has made a decision to leave. My commitment was to her. She has been a part of the community for 16 years.”

Three days later, the Circleville Herald published a letter to the editor signed by appellee, Wallace Higgins. The letter stated:

“Dear Editor:

“Downtown Circleville is about to suffer a serious loss. Linda’s Cardinal Market, at the corner of Scioto and West Main streets, is being forced out of business by the exorbitant rent now being demanded by the present owner of the building. Most of us who live in the downtown area have depended on Linda and her predecessors, who have been in the grocery business on that site for the past 50 years.

“Ward Skinner and Linda have run a friendly and accommodating store. They knew, understood, and sympathized with their customers. Now, because of one man’s self-centered greed, all of that is going to end.

“Too many downtown properties belong to people who care nothing for Circleville and who have no vision for the future. Circleville is a unique place, and everyone could profit from that uniqueness. Instead, some are trying to make it conform to the world for their own profit. They are willing to sell out to some faceless national corporation with no motive but profit and no interest in our history, our architecture, or our tradition. They cheerfully take the money and run and ‘let the public be damned!’

“The owner of the Cardinal Market building sold his own Watt Street property, for an astronomical figure, to a mindless corporation. Once he had a taste of the blood of easy money, he has apparently become a ruthless speculator. He would, I’m sure, sell the whole town to heartless corporations so that they might turn it into one great, ugly, sprawling shopping mall. It is pathetic that the whole town must suffer because of the greed of a few uncaring people.”

Wampler sued Higgins for defamation in the Common Pleas Court of Pickaway County, alleging that Higgins had falsely stated in his letter that Wampler had forced McKee out of business by charging exorbitant rent. Wampler also claimed that Higgins had impugned his personal and professional integrity and reputation by, among other things, falsely describing Wampler as a “ruthless speculator.” According to Wampler, Higgins either knew that his statements were untrue or negligently failed to make a reasonable inquiry into the truth of the statements. Wampler asserted that as a result of Higgins’s statements, he had suffered injury to his reputation and business, humiliation, stress, and other unspecified pecuniary and nonpecuniary losses.

In his answer, Higgins admitted that he was the author of the allegedly defamatory letter, but asserted that every statement contained therein “was an honest and good faith expression of opinion.” Higgins later made the same contention in a motion for summary judgment. The trial court granted Higgins’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed Wampler’s complaint.

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Court's opinion.

For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the Ohio Constitution’s separate and independent protection for opinions, recognized in Scott v. News-Herald and reaffirmed in Vail v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co., is not limited in its application to allegedly defamatory statements made by media defendants. A nonmedia defendant whose allegedly defamatory statements appear in a letter to the editor may invoke the same protection, which may or may not apply depending on the totality of the circumstances. Because we agree with the court of appeals that Higgins could invoke the Scott/Vail test, and that the statements contained in his letter to the editor were, as a matter of law, nonactionable expressions of his opinions, we affirm the court of appeals’ judgment.

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Reported by Kent Morlan