Terry v. Journal Broadcast Corp.

2013 WI App 130, 840 N.W.2d 255, 351 Wis. 2d 479, 41 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2756, 2013 WL 5612537, 2013 Wisc. App. LEXIS 843
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedOctober 15, 2013
DocketNo. 2012AP1682
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 2013 WI App 130 (Terry v. Journal Broadcast Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Terry v. Journal Broadcast Corp., 2013 WI App 130, 840 N.W.2d 255, 351 Wis. 2d 479, 41 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2756, 2013 WL 5612537, 2013 Wisc. App. LEXIS 843 (Wis. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

KESSLER, J.

¶ 1. Angela Terry appeals multiple orders of the circuit court, all stemming from her defamation action against the Journal Broadcast Corporation, its respective insurers, and multiple other parties. We affirm.1

BACKGROUND

¶ 2. Angela Terry is a Milwaukee school bus driver who ran a part-time wedding video service known as "Angie's Wedding Videos." On February 2, 2006, a Milwaukee-area news station, WTMJ-4, aired a broadcast focusing on a couple that had not received their video seven months after the wedding. The couple, [489]*489Jana and Chad Uebele, contacted the news station and the two were interviewed by the station's investigative reporter, John Mercure.2

¶ 3. The Uebeles and another couple, Robin and Ryan Sliga, each paid Terry $1000 in advance of their weddings, but neither couple received their videos within the ten to twelve weeks estimated in Terry's video brochure. The Uebeles received their video approximately seven months after their wedding; the Sligas received their video over a year after their wedding. The news station's broadcast reported the couples' struggles to obtain their videos. We described portions of the broadcast in our previous decision addressing Terry's claims against the Uebeles:

Mercure ... interviewed Terry at her home. Clips of the interviews, as well as clips of a confrontation between Mercure and Terry, were made part of an investigative broadcast which aired on February 2, 2006. The segment also contained the following statement from Chad:
"You feel like you're being robbed, and the worst part of it is it's like in plain daylight, it's not like you don't know who it is."
It additionally contained a statement from Mercure indicating that the wedding video was to be provided to the Uebeles within 10 weeks of the wedding.
Following the broadcast, approximately seven months after the Uebeles' wedding, the couple received [490]*490their video. The Uebeles were again interviewed by Mercure and WTMJ-4 aired a follow-up broadcast on March 9, 2006, in which the Uebeles expressed their disappointment in the quality of their video. The segment contained the following statements from Jana and Mercure:
"The video she'd showed us and what we got... I think that there are some big differences and I guess I was disappointed in some instances where I heard her voice in the background. I really don't want her voice on my wedding video."—Jana.
"[T]he quality [of the video] is well below what they were promised."—Mercure.
A description of the Uebeles experience, as well as Mercure's confrontation with Terry, were posted on Mercure's professional blog. Terry filed suit against the Uebeles, as well as various media defendants, including WTMJ-4, its parent company, Mercure, and various station executives.

See Terry v. Uebele, No. 2009AP2381, unpublished slip op. ¶¶ 4-6 (WI App Jan. 19, 2011) (quotation marks added; second set of ellipses and brackets in Terry).

¶ 4. The confrontation we addressed in our previous opinion involved portions of Mercure's at-home interview with Terry:

Mercure: When someone pays you a thousand dollars and gives you their baby pictures and signs you up to capture their most precious day and you don't deliver, some people are going to think that's a scam.
Terry: [Makes throat cutting gesture] End of interview. Good bye. Okay, you can leave now.

¶ 5. Terry's son, who was present during the interview, forcibly attempted to remove Mercure from Terry's home, and Terry put her hand in front of the [491]*491camera lens. The video portion of this confrontation was broadcast unedited from Terry's throat-cutting gesture until she closed the door on Mercure.

¶ 6. The February 2, 2006 broadcast also featured an interview with Elmer Prenzlow, a consumer affairs specialist with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Based on the Uebeles' complaint to his state office, Prenzlow told viewers he thought the Uebeles had been "ripped off' by Terry:

I think they absolutely got ripped off. They paid $1,000 for this product. They didn't receive the product they paid for. And that, we think, would be a violation of Wisconsin law.

Prenzlow testified in his deposition that he told Mercure that Terry's legal violation could potentially be civil or criminal.

¶ 7. Following the February 2, 2006 broadcast, Prenzlow received complaints from other customers of Angie's Wedding Videos and required Terry to identify for him all of the customers still waiting for her to complete their wedding videos. Later that month, Terry identified twelve such couples, not counting the Uebeles or Sligas. Prenzlow required Terry to periodically report to him on her progress in completing those videos and kept the State's file on her business open for another year "to make sure that there were no additional violations or complaints." Prenzlow testified he thought the complaints against Terry "could have been referred" for prosecution, but he did not do so because she cooperated with his office.

¶ 8. In March 2006, WTMJ-4 aired a follow-up interview between Mercure and the Uebeles, as well as between Mercure and the Sligas. In that broadcast, Mercure addressed the resolutions of the customer [492]*492complaints by stating: "The I-team can expose a problem and consumer protection can take the legal action necessary to get a solution. In this case, they certainly did that."

¶ 9. On January 25, 2008, Terry filed the action underlying this appeal, based on the news stories broadcast in February and March 2006, and the corresponding internet version of those reports. In a Second Amended Complaint, Terry filed numerous causes of action against WTMJ-4, Mercure, Journal Broadcast Corporation, Journal Broadcast Corporation's in-house counsel, and multiple other defendants. As relevant to this appeal, Terry's complaint alleged multiple causes of action based in defamation, all stemming from the reports and the promotional advertisement. The statements and quotations at issue are:

• Mercure's statement in the February 2006 broadcast that the Uebeles "were told [that] their video would be done in 10 weeks."
• Mercure's implication that Terry participated in fraudulent business practices based on the following statements, as taken from Terry's complaint, made in the February 2006 broadcast, a February 2006 Weblog Publication, and the March 2006 broadcast:
February 2006 broadcast.
Mercure: "Angela Terry was facing criminal charges."
Mercure: "Newly Weds Ripped Off."
Mercure: "A Videographer ripped off bride and
groom and roughed us up."
Mercure: "It's a scam."
Prenzlow: "I think they [the Uebeles] absolutely got ripped off."
[493]*493Mercure: "Problem is, her business is no longer there."

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Bluebook (online)
2013 WI App 130, 840 N.W.2d 255, 351 Wis. 2d 479, 41 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 2756, 2013 WL 5612537, 2013 Wisc. App. LEXIS 843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/terry-v-journal-broadcast-corp-wisctapp-2013.