Florida Rejects False Light Privacy Claims
Florida has joined a minority of states in rejecting a privacy cause of action for false light. The Florida Supreme Court found that the tort of “false light is largely duplicative of existing torts, but without the attendant protections of the First Amendment.”
The tort of false light invasion of privacy concerns publicizing a matter that may be true about another party in such a way that it places the person in a “”false light”” that is highly offensive to a reasonable person.
The case involved the publishing of an article by the step-son of the plaintiff in a newsletter by Jews for Jesus. The plaintiff, Edith Rapp, contended that the article placed her in a false light by implying that she had “joined Jews for Jesus, and/or [became] a believer in the tenets, the actions, and the philosophy of Jews for Jesus.”
The question of whether Florida recognizes a false light claim was certified to the Florida Supreme Court by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals since there never had been a ruling on whether the tort existed in the state. The Florida Supreme Court found that in most cases, a plaintiff can bring a cause of action for defamation or “defamation by implication” that is nearly identical to a false light claim.
“[W]e simply cannot ignore the significant and substantial overlap between false light and defamation. Although we acknowledge that a majority of the states have recognized the false light cause of action, we are struck by the fact that our review of these decisions has revealed no case, nor has one been pointed out to us, in which a judgment based solely on a false light cause of action was upheld,” the court wrote. The court admitted that there may be a “subset of cases where there is a wrong without a remedy” if the tort is not recognized. However, the court said “we consider that interest too tenuous to be recognized through the tort, most especially in light of First Amendment concerns.”
Jews for Jesus, Inc., v. Edith Rapp, Fla. Supreme Ct. No. SC06-2491, issued October 23, 2008.