Voluntary Pay Papers Don't Qualify for Calif. Legal Notices, Court Rules

By: E&P Staff In California, "voluntary pay" newspapers are not qualified to carry legal notices, a state appeals court has ruled.

The decision overturns a May 2007 Humboldt County (Calif.) Superior Court ruling that The Eureka Reporter was a "newspaper of general circulation" that was qualified to run public notices.

The Reporter is a free daily that has a "Voluntary Pay Program" that asks readers to "sponsor" the paper to "cover the expense of home delivery." The Reporter is delivered whether or not a household pays the paper.

The three-judge appeals court panel ruled that the paper therefore does not meet one of the requirements of California's Government Code Section 6000, that a paper must have "a bona fide list of paying subscribers."

In Superior Court and before the appeals panel, the Reporter argued that the list of sponsors constituted paying subscribers.

But Presiding Judge Barbara Jones of the First District Court of Appeals wrote in the ruling that the sponsorship amounts are not subscriptions because "the participants do not prepay" for the paper and "there is no relationship between the amount of the contribution and the number of issues received," according to an account in the Times-Standard of Eureka by Ryan Burns.

The Times-Standard, a rival daily, had challenged the court petition filed by the Reporter in 2007 to be allowed to run legal notices. Under California law, a newspaper wishing to carry legal notices must petition the local Superior Court.

"The Eureka Reporter believes that persons who pay without threat of newspaper delivery cancellation are the best example of bona fide subscribers, and respectfully disagrees with the decision of the appellate panel," said Russell Gans, an attorney who represented the Reporter in the case. He was quoted in a Reporter article by Vivian Dunlap.

Roger Meyers, the attorney who represented the Times-Standard said the strict definition of "subscriber" is what lawmakers intended when they set the legal notices requirements.

"The California Legislature determined long ago that people are much more likely to read something they actually paid for, rather than something tossed on their front lawns whether they want it or not," Myers told the Times-Standard.