State Supreme Court Clears Way for Libel Trial

The state Supreme Court has dismissed a case testing the validity of a libel suit brought by leaders of a defunct psychological therapy program against a prominent UCLA professor who called the controversial group a cult.

The justices cleared the way for trial of a suit against Dr. Louis J. West, chairman of the department of psychiatry and bio-behavioral science at the School of Medicine, over published and broadcast remarks he made about the Center for Feeling Therapy, a Hollywood-based group that went out of operation in 1980.

The action, taken in a brief order issued late Thursday, marked the 29th time the new court has dropped from its docket a case it had agreed to review under former Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

New Guidelines

The case had been expected to provide new guidelines for determining the legal protection that should be accorded to statements made on topics of public interest.

West’s lawyers had asked the justices to prevent the suit from going to trial, warning that experts like West would be discouraged from granting interviews on controversial subjects if they knew their remarks could too easily result in long and costly libel suits.

The court’s action, however, was welcomed by Kenneth W. Kossoff, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case, who denied that the suit would improperly discourage public debate on controversial issues.

“I don’t think this is going to discourage any expert who has fully considered and researched matters of concern to the public,” Kossoff said.

Expert on Brainwashing

West, an expert on brainwashing, was sued for comments he made in interviews in 1981 with The Times and television station KNXT (now KCBS) concluding that the Center for Feeling Therapy fit the criteria for a cult, describing its unconventional theories as “phony” and alleging that its patients had been “sold a bill of goods.”

West had previously met with 50 former patients of the center. His lawyers cited statements from patients saying that, among other things, they had been struck by therapists at the center, instructed to undress in front of other patients and on occasion engaged in sex with therapists.

Psychologists Richard Corriere and Joseph Hart and other operators of the program sued West for libel. West responded that his statements were true and contended that the center’s leaders were “public figures,” which would require them to meet the difficult legal burden of proving West’s statements were knowingly false or made with reckless disregard for the truth.

Appeared on ‘Tonight’ Show

In support of his contention, West noted that the plaintiffs had formed a public relations company to promote the center and its theories of “feeling therapy”--and had appeared on the “Tonight” show and other television and radio programs.

West also cited a state statute that protects from libel suits any commentary made to “interested persons” on subjects of public interest in the reasonable belief they are true.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers denied that they were public figures and argued that West’s comments amounted to a “personal assault” on the center’s leaders. Defamatory statements made to the general public are not entitled to statutory protection against libel suits, they argued.

Both a Los Angeles Superior Court judge and the state Court of Appeal ruled that the issues in the case could not be decided without a trial and denied West’s request for a summary judgment in his favor.

Last September, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear West’s petition for review. The action this week, however, dropped the case from the court’s docket, allowing the lower court orders to stand.

The order was signed by Justices Edward A. Panelli, Allen E. Broussard, John A. Arguelles, David N. Eagleson and Marcus M. Kaufman.