Publisher Vows Fight Against $5-Million Libel Award

The Vietnamese-language newspaper publisher who lost the largest libel verdict in California history vowed to appeal Tuesday, despite a judge’s order reducing the award from $16 million to $5 million.

“Even if the award is only one penny, we still would not accept it,” said Khoi Phuc Duc Nguyen, the Westminster publisher. “I will fight to the end. At any cost, I will see this through until the ruling is reversed.”

Dr. Quang Nguyen, the physician who won the award, has agreed to the reduction in punitive damages to avoid a new trial, according to his lawyer. Nguyen had claimed in the Los Angeles Superior Court case that the newspaper Viet Nam Tu Do, which translates into “a free Vietnam,” defamed him by falsely questioning his professional competence.

Tien Doan, the newspaper’s attorney, filed for a new trial after the Sept. 6 verdict, claiming in part that the weekly newspaper of 5,000 circulation is worth about $16,000 and that the publisher could not pay the judgment.

On Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Newell Barrett denied the request after the physician agreed to accept only $1 million in punitive damages instead of $12 million as the jury originally awarded. Jury members also awarded the physician $580,000 in special damages and $3.5 million in general damages.

“We agree with the court that the jury was probably outraged with the defendant’s action in determining the excessive award, and we accept this as a final judgment,” said attorney Joseph Gabriel, who represents Quang Nguyen.

On Sept. 6, the jury found libelous the newspaper articles questioning Nguyen’s abilities as a nephrologist, a kidney specialist, and advertisements for his practice.

During the trial, the defense argued that the doctor is a public figure, meaning that he would have a more difficult standard of proof to win. But the judge ruled that the doctor is a private figure.

The two men named in the lawsuit were the publisher and An Duc Nguyen, the author of some of the stories, who also is a doctor. The three Vietnamese men are not related.

Khoi Phuc Duc Nguyen said he has filed his case with the state Court of Appeal.

He repeated Tuesday that the articles had not been intended as a personal attack against the physician but rather were aimed at a Vietnamese doctors’ organization to which he belonged.

The articles alleged that the physicians in the association had taken advantage of Vietnamese patients not fluent in English.

The original verdict was described as the largest libel award ever against a newspaper in California, according to the Libel Defense Resource Center in New York.

The next largest was $4.6 million won by a prosecutor and two police inspectors against the San Francisco Examiner. In 1985, the state Court of Appeal in San Francisco upheld the verdict. A year later, the state Supreme Court unanimously overturned it.