publicity of private life

In August 1971, appellee Cohn's 17-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in Georgia. Six youths were indicted for murder and rape. Although there was substantial press coverage of the crime and of subsequent developments, the identity of the victim was not disclosed pending trial, perhaps because of Ga. Code Ann. § 26-9901 (1972). In April 1972, during court proceedings in which five defendants entered guilty pleas, reporter Wassell for petitioner Cox Broadcasting Corporation examined the indictments made available in the courtroom. Wassell obtained the victim's name from those public records and broadcast it on WSB-TV that day and again the following day. In May 1972, Cohn filed suit in the Superior Court of Fulton County against Cox Broadcasting and Wassell. The complaint alleged invasion of privacy arising from the television broadcasts that named his deceased daughter and sought money damages. The trial court granted summary judgment to Cohn on the issue of liability. The Georgia Supreme Court initially held that the complaint stated a common-law claim for public disclosure. On rehearing the court sustained the constitutionality of the state statute prohibiting publication of a rape victim's name. The United States Supreme Court postponed decision on jurisdiction to the hearing on the merits and reviewed the case after the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the constitutional challenge to liability.

Dietemann, a disabled veteran with little education, was engaged in the practice of healing with clay, minerals, and herbs—as practiced, simple quackery. Defendant Time, Incorporated, publishes Life Magazine, and its November 1, 1963 edition carried an article entitled “Crackdown on Quackery” depicting plaintiff as a quack and including two pictures of him. Life Magazine entered into an arrangement with the District Attorney’s Office of Los Angeles County whereby Life’s employees would visit plaintiff and obtain facts and pictures concerning his activities. On September 20, 1963, Life employees Mrs. Jackie Metcalf and Mr. William Ray went to plaintiff’s home using a ruse to gain entrance by claiming they had been sent by a friend, a Mr. Johnson, and once admitted they went into plaintiff’s den where Ray photographed plaintiff with a hidden camera without consent while transmitting the conversation via a hidden radio transmitter in Metcalf’s purse to a tape recorder in a parked automobile. Prior to September 20, 1963, on two occasions the officials had obtained recordings of conversations in plaintiff’s home without Life employees participating, and on October 15, 1963, plaintiff was arrested at his home on a charge of practicing medicine without a license during which Life made many pictures. The district court awarded plaintiff $1000 general damages after a court trial in an action for invasion of privacy with jurisdiction grounded in diversity and the parties agreeing that California law governed, from which Time appealed.