DocketNumber: 13-56240
Citation Numbers: 604 F. App'x 560
Filed Date: 5/19/2015
Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 1/13/2023
FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION MAY 19 2015 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT JOHN A. GUIDICE, No. 13-56240 Plaintiff - Appellant, D.C. No. 2:13-cv-01856-MWF- JEM v. JAMES L. PRIEST; INDYNE, INC., MEMORANDUM* named as Indyne/WROIC, Defendants - Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Michael W. Fitzgerald, District Judge, Presiding Submitted May 13, 2015** Before: LEAVY, CALLAHAN, and M. SMITH, Circuit Judges. John A. Guidice appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing his defamation action arising from events that occurred on Vandenberg Air Force Base. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo a * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). dismissal for failure to state a claim, Pride v. Correa,719 F.3d 1130
, 1133 (9th Cir. 2013), and we affirm. The district court properly dismissed Guidice’s defamation claim because Priest’s statement that Guidice shouted is not actionable. See Taus v. Loftus,151 P.3d 1185
, 1209 (Cal. 2007) (setting forth elements of a defamation claim and explaining that an expression of opinion cannot form the basis of a defamation action); Grillo v. Smith,193 Cal. Rptr. 414
, 417 (Ct. App. 1983) (“The words ‘angry,’ ‘shouted,’ [and] ‘stormed,’ . . . fall clearly on the opinion side of the line. They are subjective words . . . of the sort which have been found to be opinion as a matter of law frequently in the past.”). AFFIRMED. 2 13-56240