Court to Review Libel Case Ruling
The California Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review a lower-court decision limiting the amount of money that Harbor Municipal Court Judge Calvin P. Schmidt can collect if he wins his libel suit against the Orange County Register.
In October, a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that Schmidt could not collect general or punitive damages from the newspaper, if he wins his lawsuit, because he served his demand for a retraction on the Register’s editor.
The California Civil Code requires that demands for retractions or corrections be served on the publisher. But Schmidt’s lawyer, H. Warren Siegel, had argued that the demand for a retraction was proper because the newspaper’s publisher had delegated authority to the editor.
Schmidt alleges that the newspaper libeled him in 1988 and 1989 articles about a sex-and-influence scandal in Harbor Municipal Court.
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