(DOWNLOAD) "William Ramacciotti v. Fred Zinn" by Missouri Court of Appeals St. Louis District # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: William Ramacciotti v. Fred Zinn
- Author : Missouri Court of Appeals St. Louis District
- Release Date : January 19, 1977
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 66 KB
Description
Defendant appeals from a jury verdict awarding plaintiff $10,000 in actual and punitive damages on plaintiff's four-count
libel and slander action. The suit originally contained five counts but plaintiff voluntarily dismissed Count II. Count I
was based on an allegedly defamatory memoranda; Counts III, IV and V involved allegedly slanderous incidents. Recovery on
defendant's counterclaim, premised on slander of defendant by plaintiff, was denied by the jury. On appeal, defendant contends that the trial Judge should have directed a verdict for defendant on Count I at the close of
plaintiff's evidence because: (1) plaintiff failed to prove publication of the memorandum which forms the basis of Count I;
(2) the contents of the memorandum were substantially true; (3) defendant had an absolute privilege to forward an internal
communication containing information critical of a subordinate to another city official, and (4) the contents of the memorandum
should at least be qualifiedly privileged and no malice was shown. In addition, defendant claims entitlement to a directed
verdict on Counts III, IV and V of plaintiff's petition, the slander counts, on the ground that the statements were not actionable
per se and that plaintiff failed to prove publication of the allegedly slanderous statement. Defendant further asserts on
a variety of grounds, that the jury verdict was excessive. Finally, defendant contends that error in the verdict director
as to Count I necessitates a new trial.