Savala v. Freedom Communications
Filed 6/27/06 Savala v. Freedom Communications CA5
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
| RICK SAVALA, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. FREEDOM COMMUNICATIONS, INC., Defendant and Respondent. |
F048090
(Super. Ct. No. 04-VCU210710)
OPINION |
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Tulare County. Darryl B. Ferguson, Judge.
Law Offices of Richard B. Isham and Richard B. Isham for Plaintiff and Appellant.
Hager & Dowling, Jeffrey D. Lim; The Bussian Law Firm and John A. Bussian for Defendant and Respondent.
-ooOoo-
This is an action for invasion of privacy brought against a newspaper by relatives of a man whose photograph appeared in the paper. The man reportedly had been shot and killed, and the photograph purported to show his body where it had been discovered in a public park.
The newspaper filed a special motion to strike the complaint as a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), as provided in section 425.16 of the Code of Civil Procedure.[1] The trial court granted the motion, and entered judgment for the newspaper. The plaintiffs have appealed. We will affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
On the night of June 18, 2003, Philip Savala, age 51, was shot and killed near a pond in Bartlett Park in Porterville, where he had gone to fish. His body was discovered the next morning by a park ranger. The Porterville Recorder (hereafter the Recorder), a local newspaper owned by Freedom Communications, Inc., evidently reported on the shooting at or near the time of the event, but it did not print the photograph a staff member had taken that morning at the scene.
On January 1, 2004, the Recorder ran an end-of-the-year article about the number of shootings in the city in 2003, including that of Savala. The article was accompanied by the photograph taken in Bartlett Park the previous June. The photograph's caption read: â€
