Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc.

Facts

Dun & Bradstreet (D) provides subscribers with financial and related information about businesses. Under the terms of its subscription agreement, all the information is private, and it may not be revealed to anyone else. D notified Greenmoss' (P) creditors that P had filed for bankruptcy. That report was totally false and grossly misrepresented P’s assets and liabilities. P learned of the report while at his bank. P demanded a correction because the statement was not true. P also demanded to know the names of all the firms that had been sent the report. Eventually, D sent out a notice to the five parties who had received the report. The notice stated that one of P’s former employees and not P had filed for bankruptcy and that P continued in business as usual. P regarded that retraction as totally inadequate. D refused to disclose the identity of the five subscribers who had requested the reports. P sued for libel. The trial court determined that the error was generated when one of D’s employees, a 17-year-old high school student who was paid to review Vermont bankruptcy pleadings inadvertently attributed to P a bankruptcy petition filed by one of P’s former employees. D testified that it did not try to verify the information about P before it reported it even though it was a routine practice to make accuracy checks. P got a judgment for compensatory ($50,000) and punitive damages ($300,000). The trial court granted a motion for a new trial and P appealed. The Vermont Supreme Court reversed and reinstated the jury verdict; the balance between a private plaintiff’s right to recover presumed and punitive damages without a showing of special fault and the First Amendment rights of nonmedia speakers must be struck in favor of the private plaintiff defamed by the nonmedia speaker. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari. 

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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