Nationwide v. Belo Corp. [1]

Summary

Threat Type:

Lawsuit

Date:

07/28/2004

Status:

Concluded

Disposition:

Dismissed (total)

Location:

Texas

Verdict or Settlement Amount:

N/A

Legal Claims:

Defamation

Tortious Interference

Trade Libel

On July 29, 2003, the Dallas Morning News published in print and on its website an allegedly defamatory article by financial writer Scott Burns about an accelerated mortgage program offered by Nationwide Bi-Weekly Administration, a company that provides mortgage payment services for... read full description

Parties

Party Receiving Legal Threat:

Belo Corp., the Dallas Morning News; and Scott Burns

Type of Party:

Large Organization

Type of Party:

Individual

Media Company

Location of Party:

Ohio

Location of Party:

Texas

Legal Counsel:

Derek D Rollins; Barbara Bison Jacobson; Brent W Bailey; Martha Hardwick Hofmeister

Legal Counsel:

Richard Michael Goehler; Monica Louise Dias; Paul C Watler

Description

On July 29, 2003, the Dallas Morning News published in print and on its website an allegedly defamatory article by financial writer Scott Burns about an accelerated mortgage program offered by Nationwide Bi-Weekly Administration, a company that provides mortgage payment services for borrowers. The article, among other things, accused Nationwide of engaging in deceptive business practices.

Nationwide filed a complaint [2] in Ohio state court on July 28, 2004, asserting claims for defamation, tortious interference with prospective business relations, and business disparagement against the Dallas Morning News, its owner Belo Corp., and Burns. Nationwide did not, however, serve the complaint on any of the defendants until June 2005. Shortly thereafter, Defendants successfully removed [3] the case to federal court in Ohio, whereupon the court transferred venue [4] to the Northern District of Texas.

On May 30, 2006, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss [5], arguing that Nationwide had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted because Texas' 1 year statute of limitations for libel claims barred Nationwide's lawsuit.

On October 16, 2006, the court granted [6] Defendants' motion, holding that Nationwide failed to exercise diligence in serving the defendants and that under the single publication rule, the limitations period expired in July 2004.

Nationwide appealed the decision and on December 21, 2007, the Fifth Circuit affirmed [7]the dismissal, holding that

the continued availability of an article on a website should not result in republication, despite the website’s ability to remove it. Perhaps more important than the similarities between print media and the Internet, strong policy considerations support application of the single publication rule to information publicly available on the Internet. See Firth, 775 N.E.2d at 466 (discussing the “potential for endless retriggering of the statute of limitations, multiplicity of suits and harassment of defendants” and warning of a corresponding chilling effect on Internet communication). We agree that these policy considerations favor application of the single publication rule here and we note that application of the rule in this context appears consistent with the policies cited by Texas courts in adopting and applying the single publication rule to print media: to support the statute of limitations and to prevent the filing of stale claims. See Holloway, 662 S.W. 2d at 691.

As to the business disparagement and tortious interference claims, which are normally entitled to a 2 year statute of limitations under Texas law, the court stated that when allegedly defamatory statements form the sole basis for a business disparagement or tortious interference claim, defamation’s one-year statute of limitations applies.

Details

Web Site(s) Involved:

Dallas Morning News [11]

Content Type:

Text

Publication Medium:

Website

Subject Area:

Defamation
Business Torts
Statute of Limitations

Court Information & Documents

Jurisdiction:

Texas

Source of Law:

Texas

Court Name:

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Court Type:

Federal

Case Number:

3:06-cv-00600

Relevant Documents:

2007-21-21-5th Circ Opinion.pdf [12]

2004-07-28-Nationwide Complaint.pdf [13]

2005-07-18-Belo Notice of Removal.pdf [14]

2006-02-06-Nationwide Amended Complaint.pdf [15]

2006-03-28-Order Granting Transfer to ND Texas.pdf [16]

2006-05-30-Belo Motion to Dismiss.pdf [17]

2006-06-19-Nationwide Opposition to Motion to Dismiss.pdf [18]

2006-07-05-Belo Reply in Support of Motion to Dismiss.pdf [19]

2006-10-16-Order Granting Motion to Dismiss.pdf [20]

Comments

Not reliable at all->Nationwide Biweekly Administration, Inc [21]

Nationwide Biweekly Administration took the double of the amount that my husband signed to take from his amount biweekly without communicate. We bought a house in Aurora/CO March, 2008 and soon we received this letter from Nationwide biweekly, they were saying in their ad, we would pay our house in 22 years instead 30 years. We tought was a good deal.

April 21, 2008 my husband signed this authorization, they would take one-half of our monthly loan biweekly from my husband account, the value authorizaded was $981.71, the first collection date was August 08, 2008. But they took from his account the first collection date August 13,2008, they took the right amount this day. August 22, 2008 was our second collection date and they should take the other half, but they took the double of the value $1,963.42, we just found out August 31,2008 when we saw a negative balance in my husband account and 13 OD Charges of $ 27.75 total in OD Charges $360.75 plus more two checks coming (bigger negative balance and more two OD Charges), we were paying bills thinking we had that money in our account.

How this company spend all this money in advertisement and Public Relation if they can't be organized enought to take the right amount from your bank account? How the owners Daniel Scott Lipsky and Sandra Lipsky can sleep well destroying people's financial's life and credit? How they put all those advertisement about charity if they made our life a hell? Don't trust in Nationwide Biweekly Administration, they are not reliable!!

Threat Type:

Date:

Status:

Disposition:

Location:

Verdict or Settlement Amount:

Legal Claims:

Party Receiving Legal Threat:

Type of Party:

Type of Party:

Location of Party:

Location of Party:

Legal Counsel:

Legal Counsel:

Related Links:

Web Site(s) Involved:

Content Type:

Publication Medium:

Subject Area:

Jurisdiction:

Source of Law:

Court Name:

Court Type:

Case Number:

Relevant Documents:

Comments