Schafer v. Time, Inc. ( 1998 )

PUBLISH
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
_______________
No. 96-8730
_______________
D. C. Docket No. 1:93-CV-833-WBH
MICHAEL SCHAFER,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
TIME, INC.,
Defendant-Appellee.
______________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Georgia
______________________________
(June 8, 1998)
Before TJOFLAT, BIRCH and MARCUS*, Circuit Judges.
BIRCH, Circuit Judge:
This diversity case requires us to parse the often conflicting and
confusing concepts of malice as they have evolved in Georgia's
*
Honorable Stanley Marcus was a U.S. District Judge for the
Southern District of Florida sitting by designation as a member of
this panel when this appeal was argued and taken under submission.
On November 24, 1997, he took the oath of office as a United States
Circuit Judge of the Eleventh Circuit.
libel laws. After instructing the jury on the applicable law and
receiving a subsequent request to define “malicious defamation,”
the district court instructed the jury that before the plaintiff-
appellant could recover for libel he had to show that the
defendant-appellee made a “statement deliberately calculated to
injure.” We REVERSE the district court on this issue and
REMAND this case for a new trial.
This appeal also presents a number of evidentiary questions,
most notably whether specific instances of misconduct are
admissible to prove character under Federal Rule of Evidence
405(b) in an action for libel under Georgia law. The plaintiff-
appellant challenges the district court's decision to admit character
evidence pursuant to Rule 405(b), as well as its decision to exclude
evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 on the grounds that
its prejudicial effect substantially outweighed its relevance. Although
these evidentiary issues are not dispositive given our decision to
reverse the district court on the grounds mentioned above, they may
2
well arise at a second trial. Accordingly, we discuss these and a
number of additional questions raised in the parties' briefs in an
effort to guide the district court and the parties at retrial.
BACKGROUND
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in mid-
flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, causing the death of everyone on
board. A terrorist's bomb was then, and is now, widely suspected to
be the source of that explosion. On April 20, 1992, defendant-
appellee, Time, Inc. (“Time”), published a cover story entitled “The
Untold Story of Pan Am 103.” The article purported to debunk the
then-prevailing theory that the government of Lybia had sponsored
the attack on Pan Am 103. Instead, the article posited that a
Palestinian group, with connections to Syrian drug traffickers, had
targeted Pan Am 103 to eliminate several of the passengers who
were members of a United States counter terrorism team attempting
to rescue United States hostages in Lebanon. The article claims
3
that these passengers had discovered an unsavory, covert
relationship between the Syrian drug traffickers and a unit of the
United States Central Intelligence Agency and intended to expose
it upon their return to the United States.
The article further stated that an American agent, David
Lovejoy, had become a double agent and had leaked information
regarding the team's travel plans to forces hostile to the United
States. The article included a photograph of a man identified by the
following caption:
David Lovejoy, a reported double agent for the
U.S. and Iran, is alleged to have told Iranian
officials that McKee [one of the U.S. agents]
was booked on Flight 103.
See Schafer R. Excerpt 1, Exh. A at 31. The article went on to imply
that the information Lovejoy disclosed to hostile forces led to the
attack on Pan Am 103.
The photograph in question apparently became associated with
the Pam Am 103 bombing in connection with a civil case filed by the
4
families of the Pan Am 103 victims. The families' law suit claimed
that Pan Am had failed to take adequate security precautions to
prevent the bombing. One of Pan Am's lawyers in that case, James
Shaughnessy, filed a sworn affidavit that contained a variety of
assertions about the attack that he hoped to explore through
discovery in the Pan Am litigation. Shaughnessy's affidavit alleged
that unnamed sources had identified Lovejoy, the double agent
whose treachery facilitated the attack on Pan Am 103, as the man
in an attached photograph. The man in the photograph, however,
is Michael Schafer, the plaintiff-appellant in this case. Time's
article, therefore, erroneously identified Schafer, then working in his
family's janitorial business in Austell, Georgia, both as a traitor to the
United States government and a player in the bombing of Pan Am
103.1
1
The record in this case provides no definitive explanation
of how Shaughnessy obtained Schafer's picture or how Schafer became
identified as David Lovejoy. At trial, Schafer speculated that
Lester Coleman, named as a source in the Time article, provided the
picture to Pan Am's team of investigators and lawyers. Schafer
worked with Coleman in Beirut, Lebanon in 1985, when they were both
employed by the Christian Broadcast Network, and testified that he
provided Coleman with a number of pictures of himself in the course
5
Upon discovering his picture in the magazine, Schafer
demanded and eventually received a retraction from Time. Schafer
filed suit against Time, making claims under Georgia's libel laws. A
jury returned a verdict in Time's favor, finding no liability for the error.
After filing a motion for a new trial, which the district court denied,
Schafer filed this timely appeal. Schafer challenges a number of the
district court's evidentiary rulings as well as the court's recharge to
the jury on the definition of “malicious” under Georgia's libel statute.
He also challenges both the district court's refusal to instruct the jury
that the republication of a libelous depiction constitutes libel under
Georgia law and the court's decision not to charge the jury on
Georgia's retraction statute.
DISCUSSION
I. Jury Instructions
A. The District Court's Recharge on the Issue of Malice
of his employment there.
6
After trial, the court instructed the jury on the elements of libel
under Georgia law. The instructions included a recitation of
Georgia's statutory definition of libel:
[A] libel is a false and malicious defamation of
another expressed in print, writing, pictures or
signs, tending to injure the reputation of the
person and exposing him to public hatred,
contempt or ridicule.
R26 at 1534 (quoting O.C.G.A. § 51-5-1(a)) (emphasis added). The
instructions proceeded to explain the various elements of libel and
correctly instructed the jury that it need find, by a preponderance of
the evidence, only that Time failed to exercise ordinary care in
ascertaining whether the information it published was true or false
before it could find in Schafer's favor.
After describing these elements, the district court instructed the
jury on the plaintiff's claims for compensatory and punitive damages.
One of Schafer's theories for compensatory damages allowed the
jury to presume damages but required a clear and convincing
showing of “actual malice.” The court instructed the jury that:
7
A publication is made with actual malice if it is
made with knowledge that it is false or with
reckless disregard of whether it is false or not.
In order to demonstrate actual malice, the
plaintiff must demonstrate more than just
negligence by a preponderance of the
evidence. He must prove by clear and
convincing evidence that the challenged libel
was made by the defendant with knowledge
that such statements were false or that the
defendant acted with reckless disregard of their
falsity. Reckless disregard is a high degree of
defendant's awareness of the probable falsity
of the statements made.
Id. at 1539. The court also instructed the jury that it could not award
punitive damages against Time unless it found “actual malice” as
defined above.
The instructions, therefore, referred to the concept of malice in
two different contexts: first, to describe the character of the
defamatory statement and, second, to describe the lack of care the
defendant employed in ascertaining the truth of the statement at
issue. Consequently, the jury found itself in some confusion as to
the use of malice in the instructions and asked the trial court to
8
explain its use in Georgia's statutory definition of libel. The district
court answered the jury by attempting to distinguish a “malicious
statement” from the concept of “actual malice” as it appeared in the
instructions on damages.
Malicious, as used in this particular
paragraph . . . , is not the same as the term
actual malice, which is defined for you in
connection with Mr. Schafer's claim that injury
to his reputation should be presumed. Instead,
as used here, it, along with the word false that
precedes it, describes the character of a
defamation that is libelous. It denotes
statements deliberately calculated to injure. In
all actions for defamation, this type of malice
may be inferred from the character of the
charge but it may be rebutted by proof.
Id. at 1569-70 (emphasis added). After receiving this instruction, the
jury resumed its deliberations and returned a verdict within the hour,
deciding that Time was not liable to Schafer for libel. Schafer
contends that the district court's re-charge, particularly the phrase
“deliberately calculated to injure,” misled the jury by improperly
9
requiring them to find that Time actually intended to injure Schafer
by publishing the photograph in order to find liability.2
The trial court took the wording of its recharge to the jury
directly from our decision in Straw v. Chase-Revel, Inc., 813 F.2d
356 (11th Cir. 1987). In that case, we examined the issue of
punitive damages awarded for a defendant's violation of Georgia's
libel laws and noted that the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution prohibited the award of punitive damages in a
defamation case absent a showing of “actual malice.” Id. at 360-63
(citing New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S. Ct. 710,
2
Schafer's appeal is limited to the trial court's response
to the jury's question. See App. Reply Br. at 3. Despite Time's
disingenuous statements to the contrary, Schafer did not waive this
issue on appeal either by suggesting the contested language to the
district court or by failing to make his objection known to the
district court. In this case, during a discussion of the issue at
hand, the district judge began to discuss a particularly relevant
case and one of Schafer's lawyers responded that the case was Straw
v. Chase-Revel, Inc. See R26 at 1562. Although rules of procedure
occasionally have the unfortunate result of serving as “traps for
the unwary,” see United States v. Pool, 660 F.2d 547, 558 (5th Cir.
Unit B, 1982), we would be loath to hold that a litigant who
provides the name of the case under discussion to the court thereby
foregoes the right to object to the court's decision to apply that
case. The record shows that Schafer clearly communicated his
position on this issue to the district court and that, after the
judge gave the instruction to the jury, both parties noted their
exceptions to the charge as previously stated during argument. See
R26 at 1571.
10
11 L. Ed. 2d (1964) and Gertz v. Robert Welch, 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.
Ct. 2997, 51 L. Ed. 2d 789 (1974)). In that context, we undertook to
explain the difference between “actual malice” as defined in the
Supreme Court's cases and “common law malice” as it appears in
section 51-5-1. Id. We explained that “actual malice” referred to the
speaker's actual or constructive knowledge regarding the truth of the
statement.3 We then explained that “malicious,” as it appears in
section 51-5-1, refers to the defendant's statement, and that it
requires that statement to be of the type “deliberately calculated to
injure.” Id. at 362 (citing Williams v. Trust Co. of Georgia, 154 Ga.
App. 49, 56, 230 S.E.2d 45, 51 (1976)).
Although the Straw decision correctly states the law in
Georgia, we acknowledge that it does so in a confusing manner.
The confusion arises because a private plaintiff may recover for libel
under Georgia law without proving an intentional tort. See Triangle
3
As noted above, “actual malice” refers to whether the
defendant either knew the statement was false or published it with
a reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. Straw, 813
F.2d at 361.
11
Publications, Inc. v. Chumley, 253 Ga. 179, 181, 317 S.E.2d 534,
536 (Ga. 1984) (“an overwhelming majority of the state courts which
have addressed the question have held that a private figure plaintiff
may recover for defamation on a showing of negligence on the part
of the speaker or writer.”) (emphasis added). Any language
demanding a calculation to injure appears to conflict with this
negligence standard by suggesting that the plaintiff must show that
the defendant, motivated by some ill-will or “intentional hostility,”
actually sought or intended to injure the plaintiff.
As the Straw court explained in a footnote, however, there is no
such conflict in the law because the term malicious modifies only the
statement at issue; the defendant's subjective state of mind or
intentions towards the defendant are irrelevant at this point in the
jury's analysis. See Straw, 813 F.2d at 356 n.8; Van Gundy v.
Wilson, 84 Ga. App. 429, 438-39, 66 S.E.2d 93, 101 (Ga. Ct. App.
1951). Any statement can be malicious in the sense that it is of a
type calculated to injure, regardless of how the writer feels towards
12
his subject, if it suggests injurious (or, more plainly, bad) things
about the subject to the ordinary reader. By contrast, not everything
that comes from the pen of a writer who harbors a deep and
personal hostility toward the subject need be of a type calculated to
injure. The Straw court's explanations and limitations on the
applicability of common law malice in section 51-5-1 are consistent
with Georgia's cases that dismiss the defendant's private intentions
towards the plaintiff as irrelevant in the defamation context. See
Brooks v. Stone, 170 Ga. App. 457, 458, 317 S.E.2d 277, 279
(1984) aff'd 235 Ga. 565, 322 S.E.2d 728 (Ga. 1984) (“'In an action
for defamation it is immaterial what meaning the speaker intended
to convey. He may have spoken without any intention of injuring
another's reputation, but if has done so he must compensate the
party.'”) (quoting Southeastern Newspapers v. Walker, 76 Ga. App.
57, 61, 44 S.E.2d 697, 701 (1947)). Indeed, in the typical case
common law malice is presumed from the character of the
defamation at issue and may only be rebutted on the issue of
13
damages or to establish the defense of privilege. See O.C.G.A. §
51-5-5; Montgomery v. Pacific Southern Co., 131 Ga. App. 712, 717,
206 S.E.2d 631, 635 (1974)(“As to proof of malice, proof that the
writing is false, and that it maligns the private character . . . of
another, is itself evidence of legal malice.”) (emphasis omitted),
overruled on other grounds by, Diamond v. American Family
Corp., 186 Ga. App. 681, 368 S.E.2d 350 (Ga. Ct. App. 1988)).
Moreover, only by rejecting the notion that the use of the word
“malicious” in section 51-5-1 requires a showing that the defendant
intended to harm the plaintiff, can we reconcile the language in
Straw with our subsequent decision in Simon v. Shearson Lehman
Bros., Inc., 895 F.2d 1304 (11th Cir. 1990). In that case, the district
court instructed the jury that, as a matter of law, there was no
evidence that the defendant in making the defamatory remark had
acted with spite or ill-will towards the plaintiff. Id. at 1320.
Nevertheless, we upheld the jury's decision to hold the defendant
liable for slander and its award of punitive damages, because the
14
defendant's state of mind was irrelevant to the concept of malice in
either context. Significantly, after discussing “actual malice” we
wrote that “common law malice is presumed from the character of
the defamatory statement and has nothing to do with the defendant's
state of mind.” Id. (emphasis added).
Unfortunately, our use of the phrase “deliberately calculated
to injure” to define “malicious” as it appears in section 51-5-1, in
Straw and Simon, has tended to obfuscate rather than clarify
Georgia law on this issue.4 The natural and plain connotation of
the phrase “deliberately calculated to injure” suggests that the jury
must find that the defendant subjectively intended to injure the
plaintiff as a prerequisite for liability. Without the benefit of the
attendant explanations and limitations described at length above,
the definition is incomplete and misleading. The trial court's
instruction to the jury in this case, although literally accurate, in the
4
The district court noted precisely this point below: “The
law of defamation is by any test confusing and precious little has
been done by the courts, trial or appellate, to fix understandable
instructions.” R13-134 at 2 n.1.
15
context presented here, failed to properly guide the jury in its
deliberations and likely resulted in a legally misguided verdict.
Our review of a district court's charges to the jury is deferential,
and the trial judge is entitled to wide discretion over the style and
wording employed as long as the instructions accurately reflect the
law. See Carter v. Decisionone Corp., 122 F.3d 997, 1005 (11th Cir.
1997) (per curiam). We must examine “'whether the jury charges,
considered as a whole, sufficiently instructed the jury so that the
jurors understood the issues and were not misled.'” Id. (quoting
Wilkinson v. Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc., 920 F.2d 1560, 1569 (11th
Cir. 1991)). Finally, we will reverse the district court only if “we are
'left with a substantial and ineradicable doubt as to whether the jury
was properly guided in its deliberations.'” Id. (quoting Johnson v.
Bryant, 671 F.2d 1276, 1280 (11th Cir. 1982).
As noted above, there can be no doubt that the trial court's
instructions on this issue were faithful to the language of our opinion
in Straw. Nevertheless, as that language, standing alone without
16
lengthy explanation, carries with it a powerful tendency to mislead
and confuse even those experienced in the law of libel, we cannot
say that the charge, as modified by the re-charge, adequately
focused the jury's attention on the proper factual issue. As the
Georgia Court of Appeals recently observed in a similar libel case,
an instruction “'which confuses the issues in the case and injects into
the case issues not made by the pleadings or the evidence is
presumptively harmful to the losing party.'” Davis v. Shavers, 225
Ga. App. 497, 501, 484 S.E.2d 243, 248 (Ga. Ct. App. 1997)
(internal quotation marks omitted). The jury's question on this point
and its subsequent decision, in obvious reliance on the court's re-
charge, serves only to underscore the concerns voiced above. As
a result, we are left with “an ineradicable doubt” that the jury found
for the defendant because the plaintiff had not proved Time
deliberately intended to injure him. Accordingly, we reverse and
remand this case for a new trial.5 Although our disposition of this
5
As a result, we decline to address the merits of Schafer's
related but undeveloped suggestion that an instruction on the issue
17
issue resolves this appeal, we address Schafer's remaining
challenges to the jury instructions to assist the district court and the
parties when these issues inevitably are resurrected upon retrial.
B. Refusal to Instruct the Jury on Republication
Next, Schafer challenges the district court's decision not to
include his proposed instruction that the unprivileged republication
of a libelous statement may constitute libel under Georgia law. We
review a district court's refusal to include a requested jury instruction
for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Condon, 132 F.3d
653, 656 (11th Cir. 1998).
A defendant's republication of a libelous statement is a tort
under Georgia law, “independent and separate from the first
publication.” Peacock v. Retail Credit Co., 302 F. Supp. 418, 421
of malice is misplaced when the plaintiff has shown libel per se.
Compare Rosanova v. Playboy Enter., Inc., 411 F. Supp. 440, 445
(S.D.Ga. 1976) aff'd 580 F.2d 859 (5th Cir.1978) (“Libel per se is
a publication charging that one is guilty of a crime, dishonesty or
immorality. To be actionable the statement must be both false and
malicious.”) with Davis, 225 Ga. App. at 500-01, 484 S.E.2d at 247-
48 (implying, without supporting authority, that an instruction on
common law malice was inapplicable to a case involving libel per
se).
18
(N.D. Ga. 1969), aff'd, 429 F.2d 31, (quoting Howe v. Bradstreet Co.,
135 Ga. 564, 565, 69 S.E. 1082, (1911)). Liability in such a
situation, of course, requires the plaintiff to show that the defendant's
republication of the libelous statement itself satisfies all the elements
of the tort of libel, independent and apart from the actions of the
original act of libel. Cf. Howe, 135 Ga. at 565-66 (distinguishing
between joint-publishers and a republisher). In this case, therefore,
Schafer must prove that Time published his photograph without
exercising reasonable care as to whether it had correctly identified
the man in the picture as David Lovejoy; presumably it would be
insufficient to rely on the negligence of the person who filed the
affidavit in the Pan Am case.
Georgia's statutes provide an affirmative defense of privilege
when the libel defendant's statement constitutes a “fair and honest”
report of judicial bodies or court proceedings. See O.C.G.A. § 51-5-
7(5 & 6); Atlanta Journal Co. v. Doyal, 82 Ga. App. 321, 328, 60
S.E.2d 802, 810 (Ga. Ct. App. 1950). At the conclusion of the
19
evidence, the district court denied Time's motion for judgment as a
matter of law, finding that Time had not established that its
republication of Schafer's photograph from an affidavit filed in the
Pan Am 103 case was “fair and honest” as a matter of law.6 Despite
the court's ruling that Time was not entitled to the privilege as a
matter of law, Time presented evidence that the photograph came
from a sworn affidavit, filed in the Pan Am case, as well as its
reporter's efforts to confirm the identity of the man in the picture.
During closing argument, Time emphasized this evidence in an effort
to argue that Time had exercised reasonable care before publishing
the picture. Schafer argues that this tactic effectively nullified the
trial court's decision on privilege and that the jury should have been
instructed that the source of the photograph was legally irrelevant to
the question of Time's negligence.
6
Schafer makes a curious argument that Time's attempt to
rely on the privilege defense, which is one of “confession and
avoidance” somehow amounts to an admission of libel. Although
resort to the privilege defense constitutes “admission of
publication and bona fide,”it does not constitute an admission of
liability. See Auer v. Black, 163 Ga. App. 787, 789, 294 S.E.2d
616, 618-19 (Ga. Ct. App. 1982).
20
An inquiry into negligence requires the jury to determine
whether the defendant acted reasonably under the circumstances.
The source of a particular piece of information is relevant to the facts
and circumstances that confront a defendant that republishes
information in the regular course of its business. Similarly, the steps
that such a defendant took to verify the identity of the man in the
photograph are similarly relevant to the question of negligence. See
Stange v. Cox Enter., 211 Ga. App. 731, 733-34, 440 S.E.2d 503,
506-07 (1994) (discussing the steps a publisher took to check the
accuracy of a story and editorial). Ironically, Schafer's own
prosecution of this cause of action, in which he has argued that Time
should never have published its story because it should have known
that the sources for much of the information in the story were
thoroughly unreliable, makes this point quite plainly.
Moreover, Schafer's contention that the jury was unaware of
the fact that a republication of a libelous statement could itself
constitute libel is unsupportable. As Time points out, the district
21
court instructed the jury that publication of the defamatory statement
was an element of the charge. The very fact that the court
submitted this case to the jury and asked it to decide whether Time's
republication of the photograph made it liable to Schafer for libel
demonstrates the jury could not have been misled into accepting the
source of the photograph as a complete defense. As a result, we
see no error in the district court's decision not to include Schafer's
requested charge.
C. Refusal to Instruct on Georgia's Retraction Statute
Finally, Schafer argues that the trial court erred by failing to
include language instructing the jury on Georgia's retraction statute.
The statute in question, O.C.G.A. § 51-5-11, permits a libel
defendant to limit its potential liability by printing a retraction that
conforms with several enumerated requirements.7 The parties agree
7
In pertinent part, the statute provides:
(b) In any such action, the defendant may allege and give
proof of the following matters as applicable:
(1) (A) That the matter alleged to have been
published and to be libelous was published without
malice;
(B) That the defendant, in a regular issue of
22
that Time's correction, printed over a month after Schafer gave
written demand for a retraction, did not comply with section 51-5-
11(b)(1).
Schafer argues that the court should have instructed the jury
that the statute sets out the minimum requirements for a legally
sufficient retraction. This argument, however, contradicts the plain
language of Georgia's statute. Section 51-5-11 allows a libel
defendant the option of limiting its liability for compensatory and
punitive damages by adhering to a number of specific conditions.
Time's failure to avail itself of the statute's protection did not make
its efforts at correction “legally insufficient” either in the sense that
the newspaper or other publication in question,
within seven days after receiving written demand,
or in the next regular issue of the newspaper or
other publication following receipt of the demand
if the next regular issue was not published within
seven days after receiving the demand, corrected
and retracted the allegedly libelous statement in
as conspicuous and public a manner as that in which
the alleged libelous statement was published . . .
.
. . . .
(c) Upon proof of the facts specified in paragraph (1) .
. . the plaintiff shall not be entitled to any punitive
damages and the defendant shall be liable only to pay
actual damages. . . .
O.C.G.A. § 51-5-11.
23
the jury could not consider a noncompliant correction as it relates
to the issues before it on the libel charge, or in the sense that
such a correction gave rise to some form of liability, see e.g.,
McFarlane v. Sheridan Square Press, Inc., 91 F.3d 1501, 1515
(D.C. Cir. 1996) (finding no authority for a “duty to retract”).
Schafer cites no case that lends credibility to this reading of the
statute, and our own research has uncovered no authority that
supports his position.
As a result, section 51-5-11 had no bearing on the issues
before the jury,8 and the court correctly declined to include an
8
Schafer correctly points out that a number of courts have
discussed a refusal to retract or a defendant's publication of a
retraction in bad faith as evidence of actual malice. See Augusta
Chronicle Publ'g Co. v. Arrington, 42 Ga. App. 746, 157 S.E. 394(Ga. Ct. App. 1930); Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. v. Coastal
Transmission Serv., Inc., 167 Ga. App. 611, 307 S.E.2d 83 (Ga. Ct.
App. 1983). In none of those cases, however, did the defendant's
failure to publish a retraction within the letter of a statute such
as section 51-5-11 constitute evidence of such bad faith. See
e.g., Brown v. Fawcett Pub., Inc. , 196 So.2d 465, 473 (Fla. Ct.
App. 1965) (defendant's retraction of stories accusing the
plaintiff of sodomy and murder, which did not appear for more than
a year after the grand jury found insufficient evidence to support
the charges, was evidence of actual malice). As a result, it would
have been error for the court to instruct the jury that a
retraction that failed to comply with the statute necessarily
constituted evidence of actual malice. See Bandido's Inc., v.
Journal Gazette Co., 574 N.E.2d 324, 328 (Ind. Ct. App. 1991).
24
instruction on the statute. Cf. Davis, 484 S.E.2d at 248 (noting
the error of including a charge that injects into a case issues not
relevant to the issues made by the pleadings and evidence).
Instead, the district court correctly instructed the jury that it could
consider the timing, content, and prominence of Time's correction
in its deliberations regarding whether Time had acted to limit
Schafer's damages. Moreover, the district court's instruction that
Time's failure to publish a correction that satisfied Schafer was
not, by itself, a basis for awarding damages was also a proper
and accurate statement of the law.
II Evidentiary Issues
Schafer also argues that the district court committed
reversible error by permitting Time's counsel to question Schafer
regarding a number of “specific acts of misconduct” during cross-
examination and by excluding from evidence a memorandum
25
discussing the credibility of Time's sources for the Pan Am 103
article. We review the district court's legal decision to apply a
particular rule of evidence de novo but its decision to admit or
exclude particular evidence under that rule for an abuse of
discretion. Cf. Carmichael v. Samyang Tire, Inc., 131 F.3d 1433,
1435 (11th Cir. 1997). We will not overturn an evidentiary ruling
unless the complaining party has shown a “substantial prejudicial
effect.” See Judd v. Rodman, 105 F.3d 1339, 1341 (11th Cir.
1997).
A. Specific Acts of Misconduct
Evidence of a person's character is viewed with some
suspicion under the law and generally is disfavored in the Federal
Rules of Evidence. See Fed. R. Evid. 404 (character evidence
generally inadmissible to prove conforming conduct). In an action
for defamation or libel, however, the issue of the plaintiff's
reputation and character scarcely can be avoided because the
plaintiff typically seeks to recover compensation for damage to his
26
or her reputation. Even in such cases, however, the rules of
evidence prescribe particular methods for broaching the issue of
character. See Fed. R. Evid. 405 (“Methods of Proving
Character”).
Before trial, the district court instructed the parties that Time
would not be permitted to introduce and explore a number of
specific acts and events in Schafer's life as they were irrelevant
to the issues before the jury. At that time, however, the district
court warned both parties that the court would revisit the
character issue to the extent that particular acts and events were
shown to be relevant to the question of damages or how Schafer's
picture might have become associated with the Pan Am case.
During the course of the trial, the district court made a preliminary
ruling permitting Time to explore selective incidents and acts in
Schafer's background but excluding evidence of others.
Specifically, the district court ruled that Time would be permitted
to question Schafer about a felony conviction, a possible violation
27
of his subsequent parole, convictions for driving under the
influence, an arrest for writing a bad check, failure to file tax
returns, failure to pay alimony and child support, and evidence
concerning Schafer's efforts to change his name and social
security number.9 Schafer attacks the district court's ruling and
argues that these specific acts were inadmissible.
The Federal Rules of Evidence detail the circumstances
under which character evidence is admissible and the methods
available for presenting such evidence. In all cases in which
character evidence is admissible a party may offer reputation or
opinion testimony on the issue of a person's character. See Fed.
R. Evid. 405(a).10 Only in cases in which a person's character is
9
Schafer changed his name from Michael Franks at the age of
32 when he discovered that he had never legally been adopted. See
R21 at 4-5. The issue was relevant at trial because “Michael
Franks” was one of Lovejoy's purported aliases.
10
Rule 405 provides the following methods for introducing
character evidence:
(a) Reputation or opinion. In all cases in which
evidence of character or a trait of character of a person
is admissible, proof may be made by testimony as to
reputation or by testimony in the form of an opinion. On
cross-examination, inquiry is allowable into relevant
specific instances of conduct.
28
“an essential element of a charge, claim or defense,” however,
may a party offer evidence of specific instances of conduct. See
Fed. R. Evid. 405(b).11
Character evidence does not constitute an “essential
element” of a claim or charge unless it alters the rights and
liabilities of the parties under the substantive law. See
United States v. Keiser, 57 F.3d 847, 856 & n.20 (9th Cir. 1995);
Perrin v. Anderson, 784 F.2d 1040, 1045 (10th Cir. 1986) (citing
McCormick on Evidence § 187 at 551 (3d ed. 1984)). Our
(b) Specific instances of conduct. In cases in which
character or a trait of character of a person is an
essential element of a charge, claim, or defense, proof
may also be made of specific instances of that person's
conduct.
Fed. R. Evid. 405.
11
The advisory committee notes to Rule 405 provide some
insight as to the rule's limitations on the use of specific acts to
prove character:
Of the three methods of proving character
provided by the rule, evidence of specific
instances of conduct is the most convincing.
At the same time it possesses the greatest
capacity to arouse prejudice, to confuse, to
surprise, and to consume time. Consequently
the rule confines the use of evidence of this
kind to cases in which character is, in the
strict sense, in issue and hence deserving of
a searching inquiry.
Fed. R. Evid. 405, adv. comm. note.
29
determination of whether character constitutes an essential
element requires us to examine the “authoritative statutory or
common law statement of the elements of the prima facie case
and defenses.” Keiser, 57 F.3d at 856 n.20.12 The advisory
committee's notes to the Federal Rules of Evidence provide two
examples in which character evidence constitutes such an
essential element: “[1] the chastity of a victim under a statute
specifying her chastity as an element of the crime of seduction, or
[2] the competency of the driver in an action for negligently
entrusting a motor vehicle to an incompetent driver.” Fed. R.
Evid. 404(a) adv. comm. note (explaining that Rule 404 does not
exclude such evidence because it is not offered to prove conduct
consistent with character). In addition to these examples, a
charge of defamation or libel commonly makes damage to the
victim's reputation or character an essential element of the case.
12
As the Keiser court noted, this inquiry is a legal rather
than factual one, see Keiser, 57 F.3d at 856 n.20, and as a result,
our review of the district court's decision on this matter is de
novo. Id. at 852 n.6.
30
See e.g., Johnson v. Pistilli, No. 95 C 6424, (N.D. Ill. Oct. 8,
1996) (“It is rare that character is an essential element. The
typical example of such a case is defamation where injury to
reputation must be proven.”); see also Michael H. Graham,
Handbook of Federal Evidence § 405.2 (4th ed. 1996). Georgia
law confirms that an assertion of damage to reputation in a libel
case makes the plaintiff's character an issue under the
substantive law. See Ajouelo v. Auto-Soler Co., 61 Ga. App. 216,
6 S.E.2d 415, 419 (1939) (“It is generally held that the foundation
of an action for defamation is the injury done to the reputation,
that is, injury to character in the opinion of others arising from
publication . . . .”); Redfearn v. Thompson, 10 Ga. App. 550, 555
(1912) (permitting the jury to consider plaintiff's bad reputation in
mitigation of damages). Since the plaintiff's character is
substantively at issue in a libel case under Georgia law, Rule
405(b) permits the admission of evidence regarding specific
31
instances of the plaintiff's conduct on that issue.13 See Perrin,
784 F.2d at 1045; Government of the Virgin Islands v. Grant, 775
F.2d 508, 511 n.4 (3d Cir. 1985); cf. Longmire v. Alabama State
Univ., 151 F.R.D. 414, 419 (M.D. Al. 1992) (permitting discovery
regarding specific incidents because the libel plaintiff put his
character in issue); accord Ex Parte Healthsouth Corp., No.
1961758, 1970010, 2-3 (Ala. 1997) (permitting discovery of such
evidence in a libel case under a state rule of evidence identical to
Fed. R. Evid. 405(b)); Daniels v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 634 So.2d
88, 93 (Miss. 1993) (making a similar observation in dicta). Given
13
Schafer's argument that this analysis puts “the horse
before the cart” because Rule 404 governs the question of whether
character evidence is admissible is unavailing. Rule 404 forbids
the use of character evidence to prove “action in conformity
therewith on a particular occasion,” or as the advisory committee's
notes describe it, the “circumstantial” use of character evidence.
See Fed. R. Evid. 404(a) adv. comm. notes. Rule 404 does not bar
the admission of character evidence when character or a particular
character trait is actually at issue. Id. Rule 404 permits the
character evidence in dispute here, and Rule 405 governs the
acceptable methods for introducing it.
For the sake of completing the analysis, however, we note that
even though evidence of specific acts is admissible to prove
character in a libel case under Rule 405(b), a district court must
still determine whether such acts pass muster under Federal Rule of
Evidence 401 (relevance) and Federal Rule of Evidence 403
(prejudice). See United States v. Barry, 814 F.2d 1400, 1403-04 &
n.6 (9th Cir. 1987). The district court's decision to admit the
evidence at issue here cannot be said to constitute an abuse of
discretion under these rules.
32
the plain language of Rule 405(b)), Schafer's arguments that
specific acts remain inadmissible to prove character in an action
for libel are unpersuasive.14
Accordingly, we find no error in Time's exploration of these
and other issues of character during its cross-examination of
Schafer. To the extent that Time strayed from the specific issues
of character enumerated in the district court's preliminary ruling,
including Time's questions regarding Schafer's work for Soldier of
Fortune magazine,15 Time's questions fell within the scope of
14
Schafer cites Butts v. Curtis Publ'g Co. , 225 F. Supp.
916 (N.D. Ga. 1964) aff'd, 351 F.2d 702 (5th Cir. 1965), 388 U.S.
130, 187 S. Ct. 1975, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1094 (1967), a case decided
before the Federal Rules of Evidence entered into effect on July 1,
1973, for the proposition that specific incidents of prior conduct
are not admissible to prove character in a libel case. Although
the district court in that case confirmed that character was an
essential issue in a libel case under Georgia law and that a
defendant could demonstrate that the “plaintiff's general character
is bad,” it held that both federal and state case law prevented the
defendant from relying on specific acts or general rumors to do so.
Id. at 921. The plain language of Rule 405(b), however,
contradicts Butts by expressly permitting the admission of specific
acts when character is an essential element of the case. Schafer
citation to Sharon v. Time, Inc., 103 F.R.D. 86 (S.D.N.Y. 1984), a
case that does not refer to Rule 405(b), does not require a
different result.
15
It strikes us that the district court could have permitted
Time to challenge Schafer's direct testimony about his travels and
work history without reference to the name of this particular
publication, the variable to which Schafer apparently attaches
prejudice. Given the parties' failure to suggest such an option,
33
Federal Rules of Evidence 405(a) and 608(b).16 We cannot say
that the district court's decisions on these matters rose to the level
of an abuse of discretion, nor can we say that Schafer suffered a
“substantial prejudicial effect.” See Rodman, 105 F.3d at 1341.
B. Exclusion of the Pondisco Memorandum
Next, Schafer attacks the district court's decision to exclude
from evidence a July 22, 1992 memorandum prepared by Robert
Pondisco, Time's Public Affairs Director. The memorandum
discusses some of the repercussions of Time's publication of the
Pan Am 103 story and addresses a number of charges that the
sources for the article obviously were unreliable. Significantly, the
memorandum does not mention the photograph at issue in this
case but confines its observations to the general outlines of
Time's story. Schafer argues that the district court should have
however, we cannot find that the district court abused its
discretion in this matter.
16
Rule 405(a) permits cross examination regarding specific
instances of conduct when character evidence is admissible. Rule
608(b) permits cross-examination regarding specific instances of
conduct to attack the credibility of a witness.
34
admitted the memorandum into evidence. Alternatively, he
argues that the district court erred by refusing to allow Schafer's
expert witness to discuss the memorandum to reveal the factual
basis of his testimony.17
The district court noted that the memorandum contained
hearsay and excluded the memorandum after finding that
prejudice substantially outweighed the document's marginal
relevance. Federal Rule of Evidence 401 sets out the standard
for determining whether evidence is relevant to an issue before
the court;18 Federal Rule of Evidence 403 governs the decision to
17
We decline to address Schafer's contention that the
district court should have permitted Schafer to use the memorandum
to cross-examine Time's witnesses and impeach their credibility.
Schafer has not pointed us to anything in the record that suggests
that Schafer requested an opportunity to use the Pondisco
memorandum for this purpose or that the district court denied any
such request. See R25 at 1266-67 (Time's expert witness claimed no
reliance on the memorandum when cross-examined by Schafer pursuant
to Fed. R. Evid. 705); R23 at 961-1001 (direct and cross-
examination of John Stacks, reflecting no mention of the Pondisco
memorandum). Ordinarily, we will not consider objections made for
the first time on appeal. See United States v. Prichett, 898
F.2d 130, 131 (11th Cir. 1990) (per curiam).
18
The rule provides:
“Relevant evidence” means evidence having
any tendency to make the existence of any fact
that is of consequence to the determination of
the action more probable or less probable than
it would be without the evidence.
35
exclude relevant evidence when “its probative value is
substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice”19. We
review the district court's exclusion of this evidence under Rule
403 for a clear abuse of discretion.20 See United States v.
Gilliard, No. 96-9459, (11th Cir. Jan. 21, 1998).
Schafer correctly points out that the memorandum
establishes that the article was controversial at Time before it was
published, that the sources for the story may not have been
credible, and that Time's publication of the report may have
violated internal policies and procedures. The memorandum,
however, does not mention Time's decision to publish the
Fed. R. Evid. 401.
19
Rule 403 provides:
Although relevant, evidence may be
excluded if its probative value is
substantially outweighed by the danger of
unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or
misleading the jury, or by considerations of
undue delay, waste of time, or needless
presentation of cumulative evidence.
Fed. R. Evid. 403.
20
Since we find that the district court did not clearly abuse
its discretion by excluding the memorandum under Rule 403, we need
not address the parties' arguments regarding the several levels of
hearsay present in the document.
36
particular photograph at issue or its efforts to verify the identity of
the man pictured in that photograph. As a result, the
memorandum was of marginal relevance to Schafer's claims.
Evidence that tends to show the general thrust of the article was
false and lacked credibility has virtually no direct impact on
Schafer's theory of the case. Schafer's claim for libel arose out of
Time's publication of his photograph in connection with an alleged
plot to destroy Pan Am 103 and kill hundreds of innocent
travelers. Even if Time's theory of the attack had been correct in
every other detail, Schafer's claim for libel would remain intact
because the article incorrectly identified him as David Lovejoy –
an alleged participant in that conspiracy.21 The only tangential
relevance the memorandum had to the issues before the court on
Schafer's claims, therefore, depended on an inference that the
problems described in the memorandum extended to Time's
21
In fact, the damage to Schafer, incorrectly identified as
David Lovejoy because of the photograph, would no doubt have been
much more severe if the rest of the article had turned out to be
accurate.
37
measures to verify the identity of the man in the offending picture.
Although we cannot dismiss the memorandum as completely
irrelevant, neither can we fault the district court for giving it little
weight.
Moreover, the potential for prejudice from such a
memorandum is plain. Schafer sought to use the memorandum
to show that Time's publication of the entire article constituted a
lapse in judgment and professional standards in the hope that the
jury would attribute the same lack of care to Time's decision to
publish his photograph. The district court correctly concluded that
such a tactic could mislead the jury and confuse the issues before
them. Accordingly, we discern no abuse of discretion in the
district court's decision to exclude the Pondisco memorandum
under Rule 403.
Schafer also argues that even if the district court correctly
excluded the Pondisco memorandum on the foregoing grounds,
the memorandum should have been admitted to provide the
38
factual basis for the testimony of Schafer's expert witness.
Edward Diamond testified on Schafer's behalf regarding Time's
decision to publish the Pan Am 103 article. In particular, Diamond
discussed a number of problems and issues that should have led
Time to delay its publication of the story or forego its publication
altogether. Diamond also discussed some reasons why Time
should not have published Schafer's photograph in connection
with the story. Schafer contends that the Pondisco memorandum
provided at least some of the factual basis for Diamond's
testimony and correctly notes that, in some circumstances,
Federal Rule of Evidence 703 permits an expert to rely on facts
or data that would not be admissible at trial.22 As we have
explained, however:
22
Rule 703 provides:
The facts or data in the particular case upon which
an expert bases an opinion or inference may be those
perceived by or made known to the expert at or before the
hearing. If of a type reasonably relied upon by experts
in the particular field in forming opinions or inferences
upon the subject, the facts or data need not be
admissible in evidence.
Fed. R. Evid. 703.
39
Rule 703 . . . is not an open door to all
inadmissible evidence disguised as expert
opinion. Although experts are sometimes
allowed to refer to [inadmissible] . . . evidence
as a basis for their testimony, such
[inadmissible evidence] . . . must be the type
of evidence reasonably relied upon by
experts in the particular field in forming
opinions or inferences on the subject.
United States v. Scrima, 819 F.2d 996, 1002 (11th Cir. 1987). The
Pondisco memorandum is hardly the type of learned treatise or
statistical data, the prototypical subjects of Rule 703 decisions,
that an expert might rely upon within the ordinary course of his or
her profession. See Fed. R. Evid. 703 adv. comm. note. Nor has
Schafer made any attempt to demonstrate how this isolated
memorandum could be of the type an expert typically relies on to
bring it within Rule 703. As a result, the district court did not err by
preventing Diamond from referring to the memorandum to defend
his testimony upon cross examination.23
23
Moreover, we are at a loss to identify how Schafer may have
suffered any substantial prejudice from the district court's ruling
on this matter. Diamond's only attempt to rely on the Pondisco
memorandum during cross-examination came when Time's counsel
questioned him about his earlier assertion that a London newspaper
40
CONCLUSION
Schafer asks that we reverse the district court's evidentiary
rulings and correct its instructions to the jury. We find no error in the
district court's decision to admit specific instances of conduct to
prove character under Federal Rule of Evidence 405(b) and its
decision to exclude the Pondisco memorandum under Federal Rule
of Evidence Rule 403. We also discern no error in the district court's
refusal either to give Schafer's proposed instruction on republication
of libel or to charge the jury on Georgia's retraction statute. We hold,
however, that the district court's re-charge to the jury in the context
of this case was in error and that this error raised a substantial
likelihood that the jury misapprehended the law as it deliberated on
the merits of the case. We, therefore, reverse the jury's verdict in
had published an article making similar allegations regarding the
bombing of Pan Am 103 and had been forced to retract the story.
Diamond actually held up the offending memorandum as a source for
this piece of information before Time's counsel could object. See
R20 at 729-30. As a result, Schafer's contention that this
isolated incident could have led the jury to believe that Diamond
was drawing his opinions from “thin air” is unpersuasive.
41
Time's favor and remand for a new trial in accordance with this
opinion. REVERSED and REMANDED.
42