Sued for Investigative Report, CBS Wins Anti-SLAPP Motion on Appeal

In Young v. CBS Broadcasting, Inc., the Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District recently reversed a trial court’s decision and granted CBS Broadcasting Inc.’s anti-SLAPP motion.

“A Life Hijacked,” originally aired in 2008, reported on 86-year-old Mary Jane Mann’s claims that her court appointed conservator improperly managed her money and may have stolen $60,000 from the elderly woman. The report aired on Sacramento station KOVR-TV as part of the popular “Call Kurtis” segment, where reporter Kurtis Ming investigates viewers’ claims of the improper and possibly unlawful activities of others.

The plaintiff, Carolyn Young, was the subject of such story, based on an interview with Mann. CBS aired claims by Mann that Young manipulated her and the legal system to gain control of her finances. The court noted that KOVR employed images and sound effects to add drama and credence to the claims against Young, including video of her moving in slow motion, casting furtive glances.

The trial court found that Young had met her burden under CCP 425.16, and ruled that 17 of 26 statements Young objected were possibly defamatory. The trial court denied CBS’s anti-SLAPP motion as to those statements.

The Court of Appeal reversed this decision and decided a novel issue in the process. The court found that as a government appointed conservator, Young yielded great power over Mann and her other client’s financial future and, essentially, their liberty. Thus, the court found that Young was a public official subject to this type of scrutiny. As a public official, Young had to show that CBS’s statements against her were made with knowledge that they were untrue, or with reckless disregard for the truth. The court reviewed the facts and found that the story was substantially investigated and that Young failed to show CBS was guilty of any wrongdoing.

This ruling upheld the principles in New York Times v. Sullivan, a seminal free speech case that protects journalists’ reports on important public issues. In failing to prove that CBS acted with actual malice in reporting the story, Young did not prove, under CCP 425.16, that she was likely to succeed in a defamation lawsuit against CBS. Accordingly, the court granted CBS’s anti-SLAPP motion on all counts and awarded it costs for the appeal.