Article Summary –
The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that New York’s broad protection of journalists to report on public affairs, known as the “fair report privilege,” supersedes Montana law in a lawsuit filed by Michael Goguen against the New York Post. Goguen, a Montana-based venture capitalist who was previously a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper in relation to its coverage of lawsuits alleging sexual and criminal misconduct against him. This ruling means that the New York Post’s reporting is considered a “fair and true report of a judicial proceeding,” and thus protected from defamation claims under New York law.
The Montana Supreme Court has resolved that journalistic reporting privileges in New York law outweigh Montana law in a lawsuit involving Michael Goguen, a venture capitalist from Whitefish, against the New York Post.
Justice Laurie McKinnon stated that the conduct in question happened in New York, and New York has a more significant interest in managing its citizens’ conduct. “While Montana is interested in defending its citizens from defamation, we’re addressing privilege, not the underlying defamation under Montana’s law,” she added.
Goguen, a former partner at Silicon Valley’s Sequoia Capital, faced two high-profile civil lawsuits in recent years alleging sexual and criminal misconduct. In the first lawsuit, the California Supreme Court awarded him $14 million in fraud and extortion damages, prohibiting his ex-girlfriend from repeating or publishing the allegations. The second lawsuit, filed by Matthew Marshall, his former business partner, alleged a defense company they co-founded was designed to conceal Goguen’s alleged extramarital affairs. The case was dismissed once Marshall’s extensive fraud was revealed.
In 2021, the New York Post ran an article about the lawsuits, resulting in Goguen filing a defamation lawsuit against the publication. The Post sought to dismiss the lawsuit, causing a conflict between Montana and New York’s media laws. The “fair report privilege,” a legal privilege that protects the news media in defamation matters, was at the center of this dispute.
New York’s law provides absolute privilege to fair and true reports of any legal, legislative, or official proceeding. However, Montana law implies a caveat— a report must be made “without malice.” A district court ruled that a jury should decide whether the statements were made without malice.
McKinnon established that the district court was mistaken in deciding to apply Montana’s law instead of New York’s. Under New York law, she concluded that all contested statements were fair and accurate reports of the proceedings and that the District Court erred in establishing that a jury needed to decide on the factual questions.
Several media outlets, including the Montana Free Press and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed a brief supporting the Post. They stressed the importance of interpreting and applying Montana’s statutory fair report privilege in a way that protects the media’s ability to publish newsworthy information found in government proceedings reports.
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