Belli v. Orlando Daily Newspapers, Inc.,

389 F.2d 579 (5th Cir. 1967)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Handley, an attorney in Orlando, Florida, in a conversation with Miss Jean Yothers, a columnist for the Orlando Evening Star, repeated a story he had heard concerning P. Handley told Yothers that the Florida Bar Association had invited P to serve as a member of one of the panels on the program of the Association at its 1955 Convention in Miami Beach. P agreed, with the understanding that the Florida Bar would pick up the hotel tab for himself and his wife during their stay. According to Handley, the Association discovered that P 'ran up a bunch of [clothing] bills' which they charged to their hotel room. The derogatory portion of the story was admittedly false: Ps had not charged any purchases to their hotel account. Jean Yothers reported, with embellishments, this nine-year-old story in her gossip column in the Orlando Evening Star for March 19, 1964. She commented, in part: '* * * Oops! * * * the plan backfired on the Florida Bar * * [Mr. Belli and 'his well-dressed wife' had charged] clothing bills amounting to hundreds of § * * * to their hotel rooms. * * * The Florida Bar had been taken. * * * After all, that was the plan!' P brought a diversity action alleging that (1) Yothers, the Orlando Evening Star (D), and its editor libeled P through publication of the article, (2) that Handley slandered P in making the false statement to Yothers, and (3) that all of these parties, with others, participated in a conspiracy to defame P. The district court dismissed P's complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted because it reasoned that the determination whether a statement is a libel (or slander) per se is solely for the court. P appealed.