Brummett v. Taylor, No. 08-1962.
Titan International, Inc., filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against the United Steelworkers of American and 130 union members regarding workers’ compensation claims Titan alleged were fraudulent. In a press conference regarding the lawsuit, Titan’s president, Maurice Taylor, stated that workers in Des Moines plant had used the mail to file their workers’ compensation claims and had committed mail fraud. Taylor did not mention any worker by name. The local newspaper and local television news covered the press conference. The media also did not mention any worker by name.
Sixty of the workers sued in the federal racketeering lawsuit later sued Taylor, alleging he had defamed them during the press conference. After a majority of the workers’ claims had been settled or dismissed, the remaining twenty plaintiffs proceeded to trial. The jury awarded each plaintiff compensatory and punitive damages. Taylor filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law. The trial court granted the motion, holding that there was insufficient evidence of injury to plaintiffs’ reputations and that Taylor had made the statements “of and concerning” each plaintiff.
On appeal, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s decision. The court noted that plaintiffs had presented sufficient proof that Taylor intended them to be the object of his statements. However, following Restatement (Second) of Torts § 564, cmt. a, the court held that the audience also had to understand that the statements were about the individual plaintiffs.
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