Stone v. Essex County Newspaper, Inc.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
330 N.E.2d 161, 367 Mass. 849 (1975)
- Written by Sarah Hoffman, JD
Facts
John Stone (plaintiff) was the father of Jeffrey Stone. Jeffrey was charged with illegal possession of narcotics, and, at trial, the city marshal testified that other defendants in the narcotics case had indicated that the narcotics belonged to Jeffrey. Anthony Pearson was an inexperienced reporter for the Newburyport Daily News owned by Essex County Newspaper, Inc. (Essex) (defendant). Pearson attended the trial, but mistakenly sat at the back of the room rather than at the reporter’s table near the witness stand and, as a result, could not hear the testimony well. Pearson mistakenly thought that the marshal testified that the narcotics belonged to John Stone rather than to Jeffrey, and Pearson wrote an article to that effect. Pearson’s editor, William Coltin, was surprised at the article because he knew John to be an excellent citizen, but Coltin trusted that it was accurate regarding the marshal’s testimony, and the article was published. John sued Essex for libel. In the jury charge in the libel case, the judge stated that Essex could be found liable without fault if it published a defamatory falsehood about John. The jury entered a verdict and judgment in favor of John, and Essex appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Hennessey, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 806,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
