CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN JOSE : Bid to Reinstate Libel Award Fails

A state appeals court has refused to reinstate a former San Jose city councilman’s $1-million libel award against the San Jose Mercury News, saying articles about his financial dealings were not deliberately or recklessly false. A series of articles in 1984 about Claude Fletcher “contained some factual errors” and “clearly was not a model of objective reporting” but did not meet constitutional standards for libel suits by a public official, the 6th District Court of Appeal ruled. The ruling upheld a decision by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Frank Cliff to throw out a jury’s verdict of $1 million in damages for Fletcher.