Plaintiff, a seventeen year old Gallatin High School Senior, walked into school one morning to a host of student laughter and ridicule. On February 21, 1997, the Gallatin News Examiner published defamatory statements about the Plaintiff which were, by the editorms own admission, the most filthy, vulgar, and sexually explicit words ever printed in a main stream newspaper in American history. The article accused the Plaintiff of engaging in bestiality and homosexual behavior. A reporter had inserted the defamatory language in a sports
article as a "joke" to shock his editor. The reporter expected the sports editor to delete the language prior to publication. Ironically, the reporter knew that the editor was a notoriously poor proofreader. The editor failed to proofread the article which was published to 15,000 subscribers in Gallatin, Tennessee, Sumner County and surrounding communities, not to mention the number of papers sold at newsstands. In addition, the article was reported in the Nashville Banner, The Tennessean, the AP Wire, the Nashville Scene, the Knoxville News Sentinel, CNN, WKRN-Channel 2, WTVF-Channel 5, WSMV-Channel 4, and five radio station including an evening talk show.
Despite notice of the defamatory article at 5:30 A.M. on the morning of publication, the newspapers from some 165 newsstands across the county. Although the Newspaper published an "apology" three (3) days later,
no one from the newspaper ever personally apologized to the Plaintiff. In addition, the "apology" contained errors as well. As part of his claim for punitive damages based on reckless conduct, the Plaintiff proved that the reporter had previously typed in jokes about other citizens prior to the publication of the defamatory article. In fact, the sports editor himself engaged in some of these jokes with the reporter.
The Plaintiff sued the newspaper as well as Gannett Company, the largest Newspaper Company in the world. Gannett contended that it was not liable for the newspaperms tortuous conduct because it was a parent company. However, the newspaper bore Gannettms copyright. Gannett micromanaged every facet of the newspaperms operation and inserted its own Unit Manager as the publisher of the newspaper. Gannett filed an amended answer, in the lawsuit, admitting that it was vicariously liable for the conduct at the newspaper. The jury found that both Gannett and the newspaper were liable.
The article had a significant impact on the Plaintiffms life. He was a model student, athlete, and "son every mother would like to have." He is deeply religious and took the article very seriously. He always feels the need to explain the circumstances of the article so others will not believe he is some kind of "pervert". His psychiatrist diagnosed an Adjustment Disorder caused by the ordeal that will require future counseling. The Plaintiff even had to change his name so people would not recognize him as the subject of the article. After an eight day trial, the jury awarded the Plaintiff $500,000 in compensatory damages and $300,000 in punitive damages. Pursuant to Hodges v. Toof, the trial judge approved the entire punitive damages award.