By: (AP) A federal appeals court overturned a judgment against a former
New York Times reporter who was sued for reporting about a rumor that a business executive was not who he claimed.
Robert Howard, who founded Hudson, N.H.-based Presstek in 1987, sued reporter Susan Antilla over the 1994 story in the
Times that reported rumors on Wall Street that Howard was in fact Howard Finkelstein, a felon.
Based on new information, the
Times ran a follow-up story the next day and an editor's note saying it regretted printing the first story. Howard sued in 1997.
A jury had awarded $480,000 in compensatory damages for a so-called "false light" claim to Howard.
In a ruling issued Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overturned the verdict, ruling Antilla had not acted with "actual malice" and that her article was "essentially an account of two sides of an issue in which (Antilla) merely raises questions concerning the authorities' treatment of the dispute."
"We're very pleased with the ruling," said Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for The New York Times Co., which was not named in the suit. Antilla, who no longer works for the
Times, could not immediately be reached for comment.
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