Nix v. Cox Enters. Inc. d/b/a The Atlanta Constitution

The trial court should have treated the defendant's motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment because the defendant relied on evidence from a separate lawsuit to show that its newspaper article on rogue lawyers did not defame the plaintiff.

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Franklin R. Nix, an attorney, sued Cox Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a The Atlanta Constitution, The Atlanta Journal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Rochelle Bozman for libel per se in placing him in a false light by listing him in two published articles on March 9, 1998, as one of seven examples of rogue lawyers, and in accusing him of attempting to solicit clients from another lawyer. The defendants placed his name immediately after the account of six lawyers charged with stealing their clients’ money or convicted of felonies. The article also stated that these rogue lawyers needed policing, were crooked, inept, arrogant, dishonest, or did shoddy work. The defendants charged Nix with soliciting another lawyer’s clients and, immediately after listing such examples of rogue lawyers, inserted two lines regarding litigation between Nix and another lawyer over communication with the other lawyer’s client without disassociating language, so that any reader could infer that the examples and statements about rogue lawyers also referred to Nix as coming within the same description of characteristics of the rogue lawyer listed before him. The article read as follows:

Another attorney, Franklin R. Nix, was scolded publicly by Fulton Superior Court Judge Wendy L. Shoob when Nix solicited business by sending letters to disgruntled Olympic vendors urging them to drop their current attorney and bring their business to them.

Nix v. Cox Enters. Inc. d/b/a The Atlanta Constitution

The trial court should have treated the defendant's motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment because the defendant relied on evidence from a separate lawsuit to show that its newspaper article on rogue lawyers did not defame the plaintiff.

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