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Vice v. Kasprzak

To establish a defamation claim, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant published a factual statement that was capable of defamatory meaning concerning the plaintiff while acting with either negligence, if the plaintiff is a private individual, or actual malice, if the plaintiff is a public figure or public official, concerning the truth of the statement. None of the challenged publications were actionable as defamatory statements. Houston Court of Appeals, No. 01-08-00168-CV, 10-01-2009

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OPINION

In this defamation suit, appellants, Patricia Vice and Kathie Slotter, bring an interlocutory appeal challenging the trial court’s order that denied their summary judgment motion in favor of the appellees, Daniel J. Kasprzak, Patricia C. Kasprzak, and Katherine D. Kasprzak. In nine issues, Vice and Slotter argue that the trial court erred in denying summary judgment on three publications because (1) the publications were not “of and concerning” the Kasprzaks; (2) the publications were substantially true; (3) Daniel J. Kasprzak is a limited-purpose public figure and (4) no genuine issue of material fact exists on actual malice; (5) one of the publications as to which summary judgment was denied was authored by Lisa Worthen, a non-party;*fn1 (6) Patricia Kasprzak and Katherine Kasprzak lack standing to bring suit; (7) the Kasprzaks presented no evidence of pecuniary damages; (8) the Kasprzaks failed to plead a tort recognized by the State of Texas and, therefore, their conspiracy claims fail; and (9) because the Kasprzaks have no evidence of the commission of an underlying tort, they have failed to raise a genuine issue of fact on their conspiracy claim.

We reverse and render judgment in favor of Vice and Slotter.

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