Category Archives: Defamation

Intermediate Scrutiny for January 5, 2024

Appeals, Defamation, Editorial, Evidence, Tennessee Public Participation Act, Uncategorized

ScotBlog Readers:

The delinquent editor of this unreliably updated blog has started a new project: A weekly newsletter devoted to Tennessee Court of Appeals opinions.  The first version is reprinted below, though future versions won’t be published here.  If you like what you see, you can subscribe here: https://horwitz.law/intermediate-scrutiny-blog-signup-form/.

A snappy weekly newsletter from the lawyers at Horwitz Law, PLLC summarizing the week’s decisions from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

January 1–5, 2024

  • “Extremely intoxicated, hostile, and belligerent” Army lieutenant makes a series of increasingly poor decisions. After a night out drinking at a bar during a bachelor party, he removes his shirt, places it on the ground, and starts urinating on it. He then gets himself arrested and charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, and assault on a police officer. Afterward, he engages in extensive Facebook messenger correspondence with his “companion” from the evening—distinct from his “then-girlfriend, now wife”—in an attempt to ascertain what happened, and she tells him exactly how intoxicated, aggressive, and violent he was. The Secretariat of bad judgment then sues his arresting officers “for defamation and negligence per se” (claiming, among other things, “that he was not intoxicated, aggressive, or violent when he was arrested”). During the litigation, he repeatedly conceals and otherwise lies about his damning correspondence with his “companion,” which he alternately claims did not exist, he forgot about, his wife told him to delete, and/or was work product created at the direction of his attorney. Davidson County Circuit Court: Your “blatant prevarication and misconduct warrants the most severe sanctions,” so you are ordered to pay over $60,000 in fees and costs, and all of your claims are dismissed with prejudice. Tennessee Court of Appeals: And those sanctions “were directly related to the discovery abuses and were not excessive under the circumstances.” (DAH)
  • After Husband and Wife divorce, Wife sues Husband based on a provision of their marital dissolution agreement that says she gets half the equity in their formerly shared home “when the house sells.” Chancery Court for Montgomery County: Wife gets half the equity as of the date of the Parties’ divorce in 2019. Tennessee Court of Appeals: No, wife gets half the equity as of the date of the house’s sale in 2023. But Husband gets an unjust enrichment credit for the twenty-two consecutive monthly payments that he has already paid Wife based on their alleged oral agreement about the amount of her equity interest, even though the agreement violates the statute of frauds. This case is otherwise remanded so Husband can introduce evidence about improvements and other expenditures he made and so Wife can introduce evidence that she’s entitled to reimbursement for her rent because Husband kicked her out before the house was sold. Also, the relevant provision of the Parties’ “not a model of clarity” MDA—which resulted from “the parties’ self-drafting of a form document they obtained from an unknown source”—is internally inconsistent, so this entire opinion is declared non-citable. (DAH)
  • Homeowner contracts with Contractor to build a “log home.” Contractor contracts with Subcontractor to provide some labor and materials. Subcontractor: I did more than $60,000 of work for which Contractor never paid me, so I’m entitled to payment from Homeowner, who flipped the property (which cost $382,000.00 to build) for a cool $1.5 million after construction was completed. Tennessee Court of Appeals: Not yet you aren’t. Although Tennessee law allows unpaid subcontractors to file unjust enrichment claims against property owners, they have to exhaust their available remedies against the contractors with whom they were in privity first, and getting a default judgment against the deadbeat contractor without demonstrating that you can’t collect on it isn’t exhaustive enough. (DAH)
  • Company sues Employees for holding events using the company’s name and failing to remit proceeds. During the litigation, Employees’ counsel “inadvertently included”—twice—a privileged email from one of the Employees in his trial court filings. Employees’ counsel then continues to file the privileged email in the court record and “discusses the substance and contents of the email at length” at least twice more after that. Employees: Company shouldn’t get to use the privileged email, particularly because Company “trap[ped]” us into making a bunch of apparently false statements using information gleaned from it. Tennessee Court of Appeals: It’s true that Tennessee Code Annotated § 23-3-105 subjected the email to the attorney-client privilege. But Tennessee Rule of Evidence 502 requires privilege holders to take “reasonable steps to prevent disclosure,” and repeatedly filing and citing the email was definitely not that, so the email is now admissible. The waiver of privilege is limited to the email alone, though; it doesn’t extend to “any undisclosed communications concerning the same subject matter.” (DAH)
  • Company A initiates arbitration proceeding against Companies B and C, wins, and then petitions the Davidson County Chancery Court to confirm the arbitration award. Companies B and C: Hold on, we didn’t even know the proceeding existed until we received the motion to confirm the award! Davidson County Chancery Court: That’s too bad; you all objected too late, so the arbitration award is confirmed. Tennessee Court of Appeals: Actually, because “absence of notice may warrant vacatur under the [Federal Arbitration Act],” the award is vacated for now, in part because Company A failed to include a ton of information in the appellate record that would allow us to determine when notice was provided. On remand, the trial court must determine both whether one of the companies even agreed to arbitrate and when the companies actually received notice of the arbitration, too. (DAH)
  • Father and Stepmother sue to terminate Mother’s parental rights over Child. Father/Stepmother: Child lives with us, and Mother hasn’t seen her or supported her in years, among other issues. Chancery Court for Sumner County: And those are both valid grounds for termination, but Tennessee’s termination of parental rights statutes recognize “that terminating an unfit parent’s parental rights is not always in the child’s best interests,” and it is not in Child’s best interest here. Tennessee Court of Appeals: “Upon review of the evidence, we agree with the trial court’s assessment and findings.” (Editorial note: Mother nearly had her parental rights terminated because she waived multiple potentially valid defenses, which Tennessee law really should not allow.) (DAH)

A victory for Horwitz Law, PLLC client Theresa Baldwin! In 2022, Ms. Baldwin was sued for a cornucopia of speech-based tort claims after she criticized two adults (one of them an oft-sanctioned lawyer) who took her minor daughter into their home and elsewhere against Ms. Baldwin’s instructions to stay away. And because—after more than a year of litigation—the Plaintiffs failed to establish any element of their various claims, the Tennessee Public Participation Act means that Ms. Baldwin wins and gets to recover her legal fees. Read the Circuit Court of Robertson County’s Order Granting Defendant’s Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-104(a) Petition to Dismiss the Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint Pursuant to the Tennessee Public Participation Act here: https://horwitz.law/wp-content/uploads/2022-247-Order-Granting-TPPA-Petition.pdf.

New Tennessee Court of Appeals Ruling Settles Previously Unanswered Questions About the Tennessee Public Participation Act

Defamation, Tennessee Public Participation Act,

By Daniel A. Horwitz:

As news of Dominion Voting System’s record-shattering settlement in its defamation case against Fox News spread across newswires, the Tennessee Court of Appeals quietly issued a landmark defamation decision of its own.  In particular, in a little-noticed April 18, 2023 ruling in Pragnell v. Franklin, No. E2022-00524-COA-R3-CV, 2023 WL 2985261 (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 18, 2023), the Court of Appeals settled three critical and previously unanswered questions about the Tennessee Public Participation Act, Tennessee’s still-novel anti-SLAPP statute.

Prangell arose from a nasty fallout among former coworkers at investment advisory firm Innovative Advisory Partners.  After four members of the firm left to form a new investment group, a dispute arose and litigation ensued.  Shortly after that litigation was initiated, Innovative Advisory Partners amended something called a “Form U5 Uniform Termination Notice” to state that its former members had been discharged due to “[v]iolation of client privacy rights, misrepresentation and selling away”—the latter meaning selling securities without approval or authorization.  Maintaining that such allegations had been made maliciously and with actual knowledge that the statements were false, the former members sued Innovative Advisory Partners and its CEO for defamation.

The Plaintiffs’ defamation suit began with the trial court issuing a categorically unconstitutional prior restraint enjoining the Defendants from publishing further information that the Plaintiffs contended was false—a frustratingly common occurrence in Tennessee that received no further mention.  The Defendants then petitioned to dismiss the Plaintiffs’ lawsuit under the Tennessee Public Participation Act.  As grounds, the Defendants asserted that the Plaintiffs had filed the complaint in response to Defendants’ exercise of their right to free speech, that the Defendants’ speech related to a matter of public concern, and that the statements in their amended U5 disclosure were true.

The Plaintiffs responded in opposition to the Defendants’ TPPA Petition, appending several declarations that at least facially supported their disputed defamation claim.  The Plaintiffs further maintained that the Defendants’ TPPA Petition was frivolous and that they were entitled to attorney’s fees for having to respond to it.  The Defendants then replied with evidence of their own.

Upon review of the Parties’ filings, the trial court found that the TPPA applied, it denied the Defendants’ TPPA Petition on its merits, and it ruled that it was not filed frivolously.  Everyone appealed.  Thereafter, the Court of Appeals accepted interlocutory review, which TPPA petitioners and respondents may seek as a matter of right under Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-106 (“The court’s order dismissing or refusing to dismiss a legal action pursuant to a petition filed under this chapter is immediately appealable as a matter of right to the court of appeals. The Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure applicable to appeals as a matter of right governs such appeals.”).

Upon review, the Court of Appeals resolved three previously unanswered questions about how critical provisions of the TPPA operate, all of which will provide substantial guidance for litigants and trial courts in future TPPA cases.

First, the Court of Appeals settled the definition of “prima facie” under the TPPA.  The term is used twice in the statute.  It appears, first, in Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-105(a), which provides at step one of the TPPA’s burden-shifting framework that: “The petitioning party has the burden of making a prima facie case that a legal action against the petitioning party is based on, relates to, or is in response to that party’s exercise of the right to free speech, right to petition, or right of association.”  It also appears a second time, in Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-105(b), at step two of the TPPA’s burden-shifting framework, which provides that: “If the petitioning party meets this burden, the court shall dismiss the legal action unless the responding party establishes a prima facie case for each essential element of the claim in the legal action.”

The reason the definition of “prima facie” matters—and why the quantum of evidence necessary to satisfy the standard is so critical—is because it affects whether the TPPA applies at all, and if so, whether a defendant’s TPPA petition should be granted.  Previous litigants—including Daily Wire host Candace Owens en route to her record-setting TPPA win against a failed congressional candidate earlier this year—had fought over the proper definition of “prima facie” within the meaning of the TPPA, given that the term been defined differently across Tennessee law in several circumstances.  Cf. State v. Bryant, 585 S.W.2d 586, 589 (Tenn. 1979) (“‘prima facie’ may be used in various senses, with a range of meaning”).  Resolving this dispute, the relevant portion of the Court of Appeals’ opinion states that:

Tennessee courts have defined the prima facie case standard in other contexts, thus rendering it a term with a well-recognized meaning in the common law. See, e.g., Anderson v. State, 55 Tenn. 13, 14, 1873 WL 5945, at *1 (1873) (“Prima facie evidence is that evidence which is sufficient to establish a fact unless rebutted.”); Union Planters Corp. v. Harwell, 578 S.W.2d 87, 93 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1978) (“As we understand it, a prima facie case is made out when some credible proof … is presented on the issues required to be offered in evidence by a plaintiff for a plaintiff’s recovery.”); Pickard v. Berryman, 142 S.W.2d 764, 769 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1939) (explaining that “prima facie case” “means merely that [the plaintiff’s] evidence, assuming it to be true, is sufficient to prevent his suit being dismissed”); Macon Cnty. v. Dixon, 100 S.W.2d 5, 9 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1936) (“Prima facie evidence is that which, standing alone, unexplained or uncontradicted, is sufficient to maintain the proposition affirmed. It is such as, in judgment of law, is sufficient to establish the fact; and, if not rebutted, remains sufficient for that purpose.”).

Pragnell, 2023 WL 2985261, at *10.

Thus, the prevailing definition of “prima facie” for purposes of Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-105(a) and (b) requires that “‘some credible proof’” be presented to support a litigant’s claim.  Id. at *11 (quoting Union Planters Corp., 578 S.W.2d at 93).  The Court of Appeals also held that this standard does not apply to the third step of the TPPA’s burden-shifting framework (regarding a defendant’s ability to establish a valid defense) and remanded for reconsideration of the matter, explaining that:

To the extent that the initial two steps of the dismissal procedure require only a prima facie showing pursuant to the express statutory language, see Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-105(c), the rules of statutory construction instruct that we should infer “that if the Legislature had intended to enact a certain provision missing from the statute, then the Legislature would have included the provision. Thus, the missing statutory provision is missing for a reason—the Legislature never meant to include it.” Effler v. Purdue Pharma L.P., 614 S.W.3d 681, 689 (Tenn. 2020). In other words, with respect to establishing a defense to the defamation claim, Defendants would be required to make more than a prima facie demonstration in order to achieve dismissal of the defamation claim.

Id. at *12.

Second, in a blockbuster footnote that bears heavily upon the multibillion-dollar defamation claim pending between SmileDirectClub and NBC Universal, the Court of Appeals held that no inferences are to be drawn in favor of the opposing party at the TPPA stage.  Id. at n.4 (“We note that the TPPA does not state that the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to a particular party, as is the case with summary judgment proceedings.”).  This means that—unlike the standard for summary judgment—evidence furnished at the TPPA stage should not be construed liberally by a trial court or in a manner that is favorable to the party furnishing it.  The most significant practical result of this holding is that in public-figure defamation cases—in which plaintiffs must demonstrate actual malice to prevail—a plaintiff must immediately come forward with clear and convincing evidence of actual malice in order to survive dismissal.

Third, the Court of Appeals resolved the standard for frivolity.  The question arose out of the Parties’ dispute over Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-107(b), which provides that: “If the court finds that a petition filed under this chapter was frivolous or was filed solely for the purpose of unnecessary delay, and makes specific written findings and conclusions establishing such finding, the court may award to the responding party court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in opposing the petition.”  Id.  Construing the meaning of “frivolous” for TPPA purposes, the Court of Appeals ruled that a TPPA petition is frivolous when it is “baseless or ‘utterly lacking in an adequate factual predicate as to make the filing of such a [petition] highly unlikely to succeed.”  Pragnell, 2023 WL 2985261, at *15 (quoting Milan Supply Chain Sols., Inc. v. Navistar, Inc., 627 S.W.3d 125, 161 (Tenn. 2021)).  Affirming the trial court’s ruling that the Defendants’ TPPA Petition had not been filed frivolously, the Court of Appeals also concluded (as onlookers had assumed) that a trial court’s determination on the matter is reviewable only for abuse of discretion.

Read the Court of Appeals’ unanimous ruling in Pragnell v. Franklin, No. E2022-00524-COA-R3-CV, 2023 WL 2985261 (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 18, 2023), here: https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/OpinionsPDFVersion/E2022-524.pdf.

Questions about this article?  Contact the author at daniel [at] horwitz.law.

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Tennessee Court of Appeals Affirms First-Ever Anti-SLAPP Judgment Under the Tennessee Public Participation Act

Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Defamation, First Amendment, Judgments, Tort Law, ,

In a precedent-setting, unanimous ruling, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has affirmed the first trial court judgment ever issued under the Tennessee Public Participation Act, Tennessee’s recently enacted anti-SLAPP statute.  The ruling establishes several critical precedents for free speech law in Tennessee, and it represents a total victory for Wilson County woman Kelly Beavers, who has spent nearly two years defending her constitutional right to post a negative review on Yelp!.

“This precedent-setting victory for Ms. Beavers and her family sends a clear warning to anyone who would abuse the judicial process in an attempt to censor honest, critical consumer reviews and other constitutionally protected speech,” said Horwitz Law, PLLC attorney Daniel Horwitz, a First Amendment, anti-SLAPP, and speech defense lawyer who represented Ms. Beavers along with Sarah Martin.  “The First Amendment protects every person’s right to speak freely, and this ruling makes clear that the consequences for plaintiffs who file baseless defamation suits in Tennessee will be severe.”

The case at issue arose out of a lawsuit filed by Dr. Kaveer Nandigam and his corporation, Nandigam Neurology, PLC, against Kelly Beavers regarding a negative Yelp! review.  After Ms. Beavers took her father to see Dr. Nandigam and had a terrible experience there, she exercised her First Amendment right to post a negative review on Yelp!, a popular consumer review website.  Dr. Nandigam threatened to sue her if she did not remove the review, and ultimately, he did sue her for defamation and false light invasion of privacy regarding it when she refused to do so.

After Dr. Nandigam dismissed and then refiled his lawsuit against her, Ms. Beavers filed a Petition to Dismiss the Plaintiffs’ claims under the Tennessee Public Participation Act.  Ms. Beavers’ petition was granted, and the Tennessee Court of Appeals has now affirmed that dismissal in its entirety while ordering the Plaintiffs to pay Ms. Beavers’ legal fees and potential sanctions.  “As [Ms. Beavers] aptly notes in her principal brief, ‘the TPPA . . . was designed to prevent and deter such abuse, not to enable it,'” the Court of Appeals ruled.  Ms. Beavers’ claims for attorney’s fees and sanctions against Dr. Nandigam remain pending and will be adjudicated upon remand.  The Court of Appeals’ opinion additionally orders that: “We remand this matter to the general sessions court for a determination of the proper amount of reasonable fees incurred by Defendant during this appeal” as well.

Read the Tennessee Court of Appeals’ unanimous ruling in Nandigam Neurology, et al. v. Kelly Beavers here: https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/nandigamneurologyv.beavers.opn_.pdf

 

The Tennessee Public Participation Act is affirmed—and it’s working.

Defamation, First Amendment, Tennessee Constitutional Law, Tort Law

By Daniel A. Horwitz (Republished from the Tennessee Free Speech Blog):

In 2019, Tennessee’s free speech law underwent a sea change.  The Tennessee Public Participation Act—Tennessee’s first-ever meaningful anti-SLAPP law—took effect, ushering in a host of protections for people sued for defamation (libel or slander), false light invasion of privacy, business disparagement, or other speech-based torts.  Due to a recent decision out of Hamilton County, the constitutionality of the TPPA has now been expressly affirmed.  After nearly two years, it is also clear that the TPPA is working as intended “to encourage and safeguard the constitutional rights of persons to speak freely, to associate freely, and to participate in government to the fullest extent permitted by law. . .”  See Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-17-102.

Bedsole v. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is a defamation lawsuit concerning the TV show “Tiny House Nation.”  After being sued, the defendants in that case raised claims for dismissal under the TPPA.  In response, the plaintiff asserted that the TPPA was unconstitutional in its entirety based on the Tennessee Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.  Thus, in late February 2021, the Hamilton County Circuit Court held a hearing on the contested constitutionality of the statute.

There are, of course, several immediate problems with any broad claim that the Tennessee Public Participation Act is “unconstitutional.”  To begin, the TPPA is a collection of statutory provisions, not a single statute.  It has many different features—an automatic stay on discovery provision, fee-shifting and discretionary sanctions provisions, an interlocutory appeal provision, and several other provisions—all of which function independently.  Several of those provisions also are not even theoretically unconstitutional, and there is no serious argument otherwise.  More generally, anti-SLAPP statutes like the TPPA—which is narrowly tailored to preserve judicial discretion—also promote compelling public interests and serve as an essential tool to protect the oft-ignored rights of third parties.

Upon review, the Hamilton County Circuit Court issued a short but forceful ruling affirming the TPPA’s constitutionality.  “The TPPA, at least in the eyes of this Court, is clearly predicated upon public policy concerns,” the Court explained.  “There can be no serious questions that the intent of the legislature in passing this statute was to effect a more beneficial public policy.”  Further, “the over-arching purpose of the statute”—“to provide protection to [Tennessee’s] citizens from SLAPP lawsuits”—“do[es] not mandate any particular result but leave[s] the ultimate decision within the discretion of the trial court.”  Indeed, the Court noted, “the statute actually broadens the court’s authority to move past the very low requirements of Rules 8 and 12, and to impose attorney’s fees following a burden shift not previously available to the litigants.”  Thus, the Court held, “the constitutional challenge of the Plaintiff is DENIED.”

To be sure, this ruling is excellent news for anyone who cares about free speech in Tennessee.  Before the TPPA was enacted, bad actors could credibly threaten to impose tens—if not hundreds—of thousands of dollars’ worth of litigation expenses in SLAPP-suits over a period of several years if their baseless retraction or other demands were not met in legally frivolous speech-based tort cases.  That is no longer true, given the very real possibility that a plaintiff who files a SLAPP-suit will be ordered to pay the other side’s legal fees and could potentially be sanctioned.  The end result is that negotiating power has flipped, outcomes have dramatically improved, and any number of SLAPP-suits have been avoided entirely because plaintiffs were not willing to risk the severe consequences associated with filing one.  Speech defense attorneys (like the author) are also able to defend against SLAPP-suits on a contingent basis now, rather than having to do so on a pro bono basis when a defendant cannot afford to pay for a vigorous defense.

The evidence that the TPPA is working as intended is also indisputable at this juncture.  To date, TPPA petitions have been granted in four total cases:

  1. This lawsuit against a woman who posted a negative Yelp! review about a business (fees and sanctions pending appeal);
  2. This lawsuit against a woman who called 911 and sought an order of protection ($26,500.00 fees and sanctions award);
  3. This lawsuit against three community activists who criticized a congressional candidate ($39,000.00 fees and sanctions award); and
  4. This lawsuit regarding charges of animal cruelty (fees and sanctions TBD).

The TPPA has also resulted in prompt, favorable settlements to defendants before hearing, provided a backstop in cases that were ultimately dismissed on other grounds, and—this author can attest—has been utilized extensively in pre-suit correspondence to ward off litigation in the first place.

Why, specifically, is the TPPA so effective?  The answer is “for several reasons,” but the following three changes are instructive:

1. Prior to the TPPA being enacted, no matter how much money a plaintiff forced a defendant to spend on legal fees in order to defend against a bogus SLAPP-suit, a prevailing defendant’s ability to recover his or her legal expenses after securing a dismissal and then upholding the dismissal through appeal was capped at $10,000.00.  That is no longer the case, because under the TPPA, defendants who are subjected to baseless SLAPP-suits can recover their full legal fees and be made whole after winning.  That difference has also had enormous practical consequences when it comes to negotiating power and settlement leverage, and it enables rapid dismissals by agreement in cases that might otherwise have lasted years.

2.  Prior to the TPPA being enacted, plaintiffs could impose massive litigation costs and expenses and subject defendants to intrusive discovery simply by making baseless allegations that they did not have to substantiate with evidence until much later in a case.  That is no longer true, either, because the TPPA allows defendants who are subjected to speech-based lawsuits to force plaintiffs to come forward with admissible evidence to substantiate their claims immediately.  If a plaintiff cannot or does not do so, the plaintiff’s lawsuit will be dismissed with prejudice, and the plaintiff will be ordered to pay the defendant’s full legal fees.

3.  Trial court judges make mistakes from time to time, and prior to the TPPA being enacted, an erroneous trial court ruling that a cognizable claim for defamation had been alleged could take years to correct—forcing defendants to go through intrusive and costly discovery or even a full-blown trial in the interim.  As a consequence, an incorrect trial court ruling frequently had the effect of coercing defendants to settle baseless SLAPP-suits just to avoid the cost and stress of litigation.  Now, however, defendants who are subjected to frivolous speech-based lawsuits have a right to take an immediate interlocutory appeal to the Court of Appeals and avoid such expenses by getting damaging trial court errors corrected early.

Even with the TPPA in place, of course, competently defending against defamation and other speech-based lawsuits remains a complex and expensive proposition that requires specialized expertise.  Definitionally, the type of people who file SLAPP-suits—and the lawyers who take their cases—are also willing to abuse the legal process in order to censor, intimidate, and retaliate against critics, which means that such cases invariably involve unethical and abusive people as a matter of course.  There are also a disturbingly large number of ways that the legal system can be abused successfully by bad actors and unethical people generally, so it remains important to have a competent speech defense lawyer who can effectively push back.

The good news, though, is that with the TPPA in place, litigants’ ability to impose legal consequences now goes in both directions.  Plaintiffs who file SLAPP-suits can now be forced to pay very large sums of money to the people they have baselessly sued as well.  As detailed above, that has happened already, and while certain gaps in speech-based protections remain, it will continue to happen as long as the TPPA remains in effect.  This is good news for everyone who cares about the right to speak freely, as well as the right to hear what others have to say.

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The “Tennessee Public Participation Act”⁠—Tennessee’s First-Ever Meaningful Anti-SLAPP Law⁠—Takes Effect Today

Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Defamation, First Amendment, Tort Law

By Tennessee First Amendment, Speech Defense, and Anti-SLAPP Lawyer Daniel Horwitz:

If you woke up this morning feeling freer to speak your mind, there’s a reason: A little-noticed law with huge free speech benefits takes effect today. As of July 1, 2019, the “Tennessee Public Participation Act”—Tennessee’s first-ever meaningful Anti-SLAPP law—became effective and affords those who are sued for their speech a host of critical legal benefits.

Because litigation is often prohibitively expensive, bad actors can often intimidate critics into silence by threatening or filing baseless speech-based lawsuits asserting claims like defamation (libel or slander), false light invasion of privacy, business disparagement, or other questionable torts. When faced with the prospect of having to spend tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend one’s legal right, for instance, to leave an unfavorable review of a business, self-censorship can also become an extremely attractive proposition. The result of such self-censorship is to undermine both individuals’ right to free speech and the public’s right to hear and receive information.

It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of defamation and other speech-based lawsuits are not filed because a person has suffered an actual legal injury. Instead, their purpose is to punish people for lawfully exercising their right to speak freely about a topic that the suing plaintiff wants to censor. Given the cost of litigation, historically, such lawsuits have also been disturbingly effective.

To provide a counterbalance to the financial threat posed by bogus defamation lawsuits, laws aimed at deterring “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation” (Anti-SLAPP laws) afford speakers a number of significant legal protections, all of which are critical to safeguarding free speech and promoting the free exchange of information and ideas. First, Anti-SLAPP laws help deter bad actors from filing baseless lawsuits against people for lawfully exercising their free speech rights in the first place. Second, the best Anti-SLAPP laws provide people who are sued for exercising their First Amendment rights an efficient and expeditious means of getting frivolous speech-based lawsuits dismissed quickly. Third, Anti-SLAPP laws commonly provide a mechanism to punish abusive litigants and attorneys who file baseless defamation claims with significant monetary sanctions. Fourth, Anti-SLAPP laws frequently give people who are sued for exercising their free speech rights the right to recoup whatever attorney’s fees and court costs they incurred for having to defend against a meritless speech-based lawsuit.

Happily, beginning today, Tennessee now boasts an Anti-SLAPP law that affords speakers all of these benefits. Until today, Tennessee only had a limited Anti-SLAPP law that was narrowly restricted to statements made to government agencies.  Fortunately, though, earlier this year, Tennessee enacted the “Tennessee Public Participation Act” to protect Tennesseans’ right to free speech, which became effective July 1, 2019.  Thus, from today onward, the Randy Rayburns and Linda Schipanis and Bari Hardins of the world can now wield a powerful protective weapon against bad actors’ efforts to censor and intimidate them through frivolous speech-based lawsuits.

The Tennessee Public Participation Act has dramatically expanded the scope of speech that receives heightened legal protection in Tennessee. Under the Act, every “communication made in connection with a matter of public concern”—a term that is defined broadly and expressly encompasses statements involving issues of “health or safety” and “community well-being”—”that falls within the protection of the United States Constitution or the Tennessee Constitution” will come within the ambit of the law’s protection. In other words: Most statements made by citizens within the State of Tennessee—including social media posts and blog posts—now receive heightened protection against speech-based lawsuits, including defamation lawsuits, false light invasion of privacy lawsuits, or lawsuits that assert claims such as “defamation by implication or innuendo.”  Defendants who are sued for claims such as “abuse of process” or “malicious prosecution” will frequently enjoy heightened protection under the Tennessee Public Participation Act as well.

Censorship has always been rampant, and it comes in many forms—from firing people who speak out about misconduct in the workplace to libel and slander lawsuits. More than anything, in recent years, the permanence of the internet combined with the reach and speed of social media have made it more attractive than ever to try to censor others through the legal system before harmful information—whether accurate or not—reaches every corner of cyberspace. The good news is that the Tennessee Public Participation Act will now afford significant protection to people who speak out about topics like abuse and other important issues. The text of the law appears below.

The Tennessee Public Participation Act (Effective July 1, 2019):

20-17-101. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the “Tennessee
Public Participation Act.”

20-17-102. The purpose of this chapter is to encourage and safeguard the
constitutional rights of persons to petition, to speak freely, to associate freely, and to participate in government to the fullest extent permitted by law and, at the same time, protect the rights of persons to file meritorious lawsuits for demonstrable injury. This chapter is consistent with and necessary to implement the rights protected by Article I, §§ 19 and 23, of the Constitution of Tennessee, as well as by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and shall be construed broadly to effectuate its purposes and intent.

20-17-103. As used in this chapter:

(1) “Communication” means the making or submitting of a statement or document in any form or medium, including oral, written, audiovisual, or electronic;

(2) “Exercise of the right of association” means exercise of the constitutional right to join together to take collective action on a matter of public concern that falls within the protection of the United States Constitution or the Tennessee Constitution;

(3) “Exercise of the right of free speech” means a communication made
in connection with a matter of public concern or religious expression that falls within the protection of the United States Constitution or the Tennessee Constitution;

(4) “Exercise of the right to petition” means a communication that falls
within the protection of the United States Constitution or the Tennessee Constitution and:

(A) Is intended to encourage consideration or review of an issue
by a federal, state, or local legislative, executive, judicial, or other
governmental body; or

(B) Is intended to enlist public participation in an effort to effect
consideration of an issue by a federal, state, or local legislative,
executive, judicial, or other governmental body;

(5) “Legal action” means a claim, cause of action, petition, cross-claim, or counterclaim or any request for legal or equitable relief initiated against a private party;

(6) “Matter of public concern” includes an issue related to:

(A) Health or safety;

(B) Environmental, economic, or community well-being;

(C) The government;

(D) A public official or public figure;

(E) A good, product, or service in the marketplace;

(F) A literary, musical, artistic, political, theatrical, or audiovisual
work; or

(G) Any other matter deemed by a court to involve a matter of
public concern; and

(7) “Party” does not include a governmental entity, agency, or employee.

20-17-104.

(a) If a legal action is filed in response to a party’s exercise of the right of free speech, right to petition, or right of association, that party may petition the court to dismiss the legal action.

(b) Such a petition may be filed within sixty (60) calendar days from the date of service of the legal action or, in the court’s discretion, at any later time that the court deems proper.

(c) A response to the petition, including any opposing affidavits, may be served and filed by the opposing party no less than five (5) days before the hearing or, in the court’s discretion, at any earlier time that the court deems proper.

(d) All discovery in the legal action is stayed upon the filing of a petition under this section. The stay of discovery remains in effect until the entry of an order ruling on the petition. The court may allow specified and limited discovery relevant to the petition upon a showing of good cause.

20-17-105.

(a) The petitioning party has the burden of making a prima facie case
that a legal action against the petitioning party is based on, relates to, or is in response to that party’s exercise of the right to free speech, right to petition, or right of association.

(b) If the petitioning party meets this burden, the court shall dismiss the legal action unless the responding party establishes a prima facie case for each essential element of the claim in the legal action.

(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), the court shall dismiss the legal
action if the petitioning party establishes a valid defense to the claims in the legal action.

(d) The court may base its decision on supporting and opposing sworn
affidavits stating admissible evidence upon which the liability or defense is based and on other admissible evidence presented by the parties.

(e) If the court dismisses a legal action pursuant to a petition filed under this chapter, the legal action or the challenged claim is dismissed with prejudice.

(f) If the court determines the responding party established a likelihood of prevailing on a claim:

(1) The fact that the court made that determination and the
substance of the determination may not be admitted into evidence later in
the case; and

(2) The determination does not affect the burden or standard of
proof in the proceeding.

20-17-106. The court’s order dismissing or refusing to dismiss a legal action
pursuant to a petition filed under this chapter is immediately appealable as a matter of right to the court of appeals. The Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure applicable to appeals as a matter of right governs such appeals.

20-17-107.

(a) If the court dismisses a legal action pursuant to a petition filed under this chapter, the court shall award to the petitioning party:

(1) Court costs, reasonable attorney’s fees, discretionary costs,
and other expenses incurred in filing and prevailing upon the petition; and

(2) Any additional relief, including sanctions, that the court
determines necessary to deter repetition of the conduct by the party who brought the legal action or by others similarly situated.

(b) If the court finds that a petition filed under this chapter was frivolous or was filed solely for the purpose of unnecessary delay, and makes specific written findings and conclusions establishing such finding, the court may award to the responding party court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in opposing the petition.

20-17-108.  Nothing in this chapter:

(1) Applies to an enforcement action that is brought in the name of the
state or a political subdivision of this state by the attorney general, a district attorney general, or a county or municipal attorney;
(2) Can result in findings or determinations that are admissible in
evidence at any later stage of the underlying legal action or in any subsequent legal action;
(3) Affects or limits the authority of a court to award sanctions, costs,
attorney’s fees, or any other relief available under any other statute, court rule, or other authority;
(4) Affects, limits, or precludes the right of any party to assert any
defense, remedy, immunity, or privilege otherwise authorized by law;
(5) Affects the substantive law governing any asserted claim;
(6) Creates a private right of action; or
(7) Creates any cause of action for any government entity, agency, or
employee.

20-17-109. This chapter is intended to provide an additional substantive remedy to protect the constitutional rights of parties and to supplement any remedies which are otherwise available to those parties under common law, statutory law, or constitutional law or under the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure.

20-17-110. If any provision of this chapter or the application thereof to any
person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to that end the provisions of this act are declared to be severable.

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Individual Rights Are Expanding In Tennessee

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Defamation, First Amendment, Opinions, ,

By Daniel A. Horwitz

The past week has been an excellent one for individual rights in Tennessee, with improvements coming in several independent areas:

First, the Tennessee General Assembly has passed the State’s first meaningful anti-SLAPP law to protect Tennesseans’ right to free speech. The reform will instantly have the effect of deterring people from filing baseless lawsuits aimed at censoring critical commentary and severely punishing people who do. Thus, effective July 1, 2019, the Randy Rayburns and Linda Schipanis and Bari Hardins of the world will be able to wield a powerful protective weapon against foolish bad actors’ efforts to censor and intimidate them through frivolous, failed lawsuits.

Second, following a 2017 lawsuit to terminate a White County, Tennessee inmate sterilization program, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that sterilization-for-sentencing-credits arrangements like White County’s are illegal. “Requiring inmates to waive a fundamental right to obtain a government benefit impermissibly burdens that right” in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court’s opinion reads. “This decision sends a clear, important message that should never have been necessary in the first place: Inmate sterilization is illegal and unconstitutional,” the inmates’ attorney, Daniel Horwitz (the author), said in a statement to The Tennessean on the ruling.

Third, the Tennessee General Assembly passed one of Governor Bill Lee’s central legislative priorities—a substantial reduction in the current expungement fee that the state assesses people for the privilege of expunging convictions and diverted offenses on their criminal records. Tennessee’s expungement law, which enables people to expunge up to two qualifying convictions, provides an extraordinarily important mechanism for people to move on from an interaction with the criminal justice system and eliminate their criminal record history such that—as a matter of law—it “never occurred.” Although the reform does not wholly eliminate all applicable expungement fees, it reduces the total fee that people will have to pay to expunge a conviction or diversion from $280 to $100 going forward.

These important reforms each move individual rights in the right direction. They reduce private litigants’ ability to abuse the legal process, they curtail the government’s power to infringe upon people’s constitutional rights, and they help ensure that people will not suffer a life sentence for minor criminal convictions solely because they lack the ability to pay a few hundred dollars to expunge their qualifying convictions. Hopefully, progress like this is only a beginning.

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Tennessee Supreme Court Strengthens Protections for Journalists’ Fair Report Privilege; Rules on Source Protection Law

Constitutional Law, Defamation, First Amendment

By Daniel A. Horwitz

In a unanimous, twenty-page opinion released earlier this afternoon, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled on a pair of critical issues affecting newsgathering in Tennessee.  The Court’s ruling strengthens protections for the “fair report” privilege—a legal defense that protects journalists from liability for allegedly defamatory news articles—while at least arguably undercutting Tennessee’s “Shield Law,” which enables journalists to protect their sources.  The Court’s opinion, authored by Justice Cornelia Clark, is accessible here.

The first and central holding of the Court’s opinion is that no claim of “malice”—either an express motive to harm another or simply reckless reporting—can overcome the fair report privilege afforded to news media.  “We hold that neither express malice nor actual malice can defeat the fair report privilege,” the Court’s opinion reads.  “The privilege can only be defeated by showing that a report about an official action or proceeding was unfair or inaccurate.”  Because the overwhelming majority of defamation lawsuits are baseless, the Court’s opinion significantly strengthens protections for journalists that could otherwise be eviscerated through creative or fanciful pleading.

On the other hand, however, the Court held that a journalist’s invocation of the fair report privilege necessarily “triggers the exception to the shield law in Tennessee Code Annotated section 24-1-208(b),” which generally protects journalists against having to disclose the sources of their information.  The Court’s opinion explains:

“[A]ssertion of the fair report privilege will necessarily entail disclosure of the media defendant’s source of information. This is because a media defendant asserting the privilege must show that the allegedly defamatory information is a fair and accurate report of official actions or proceedings, and therefore, the media defendant must disclose the source of the allegedly defamatory information.” 

The Court made clear, however, that “the exception to the shield law allows a court to compel disclosure of the source of a media defendant’s information—how media defendants know something; it does not authorize a court to compel media defendants to disclose the information the source provided.”

Read the Tennessee Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in Glenn R. Funk v. Scripps Media, Inc. here.

This post will be updated.

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Nashville School of Law Graduate JT Conway Wins Defamation Lawsuit Against Convicted Felon, Ex-Beauty Queen Kumari Fulbright

Defamation, First Amendment, ,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nashville, TN—Following a more than ten-year saga involving multiple criminal convictions and intense national media attention, Joshua “JT” Conway has closed the final chapter of his kidnapping, violent torture, and near-murder at the hands of former Arizona beauty queen and convicted felon Kumari Fulbright, Conway’s ex-girlfriend.  The final order granting Conway a declaratory judgment against Fulbright—which includes an agreement that “she will never use [Conway’s] name again in a public setting”—is available here.

A decade ago, Fulbright had Conway kidnapped and tortured at gunpoint for more than eight hours with the help of three armed men.  Conway eventually escaped by ripping the skin off his zip-tied hands and wrestling a gun away from Fulbright that was fired in the struggle.  Conway has since authored a tell-all book and movie script about his life and near-death experience.

For her crimes against Conway, Fulbright previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated assault, and she served two years in an Arizona prison following her convictions.  Fulbright was also ordered to pay Conway restitution and sentenced to an additional six years of probation.

During the criminal trial of Robert Ergonis—Fulbright’s ex-fiancé and co-conspirator in Conway’s kidnapping—Fulbright claimed that she had committed her crimes against Conway because he stole jewelry from her.  Conway fiercely disputed the allegation, however, as did Aaron Ellertson, a witness to a phone call between Conway and Fulbright that took place during the jewelry’s sale.  To this day, Fulbright’s motives for fabricating her allegations against Conway remain unknown.  “We’re never going to know why Kumari did that, but what you’re going to know at the end of the trial is that she lied about it,” Arizona prosecutor Kim Ortiz told the Arizona jury that convicted Ergonis.

After the end of her criminal sentence, Fulbright went on national television and falsely claimed—again—that her crimes against Conway were “justified” because Conway had stolen jewelry from her.  Fulbright also added new allegations that Conway had drugged her and stolen money from her as well.  In response, Conway—a recent law school graduate with a family and a reputation—sued Fulbright for defamation.

During the parties’ lawsuit, overwhelming evidence indicated that Fulbright had indeed fabricated her claims against Conway as Arizona prosecutors had argued.  The parties’ phone records proved that Conway had called Fulbright and spoken to her at length while negotiating her jewelry’s sale, and a witness to their conversation supported Conway’s longstanding claim that the jewelry had been sold with Fulbright’s knowledge and approval at her request.  A police report filed by Fulbright well after the alleged “theft” took place also indicated that another piece of jewelry that Fulbright claimed Conway stole from her had really gone missing in a Detroit hotel room—a city that Conway had never even visited.  During her deposition, Fulbright also repudiated her new claims that Conway stole money from her or drugged her, claiming instead that “I never said he stole it and [that] I know it” and that “[t]here’s a lot of other explanations” for what she claimed had happened.

Earlier this year, Fulbright formally admitted that her claims that Conway stole from her and drugged her were not supported by any proof whatsoever.  As a result, a Circuit Court Judge in Davidson County, Tennessee, issued a declaratory judgment that the allegations were baseless.  Fulbright also agreed to the entry of an order “that she will never use Plaintiff Joshua ‘JT’ Conway’s name again in a public setting.”  Further, as the losing party in the case, Fulbright was assessed the costs of the lawsuit, which she paid earlier this morning.

“As a First Amendment and speech defense lawyer, I am deeply skeptical of defamation lawsuits, and this is the first and only defamation case that I have ever considered legitimate,” said attorney Daniel Horwitz, who represented Conway.  “I rarely support defamation lawsuits, but when I do, it’s because a convicted felon tries to justify domestic violence and profit from her crimes by fabricating allegations that she had someone kidnapped, tortured, and very nearly killed because the person stole from her and drugged her—allegations that she knew full well were baseless at the time she made them.”

Please contact JT Conway at [email protected] for media inquiries.

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Photos from left to right:  Joshua “JT” Conway (submitted); Kumari Fulbright (Kevin Hayes, CBS News, Kumari Fulbright (PICTURES): Beauty Queen Known for Mug Shot Headed to Prison (Dec. 10, 2010, 12:04PM), CBS News, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kumari-fulbright-pictures-beauty-queen-known-for-mug-shot-headed-to-prison); Robert Ergonis (Brian Mori, Last man in kidnapping guilty; Sues judge, prosecutors, and sheriff, Tucson Courts Examiner (Nov. 9, 2010, 7:49PM), https://meridiancity.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/guilty-ergonis-sues.pdf).