Thomas Wilkinson, Benjamin Wilkinson, by Next Friend Thomas Wilkinson and Jonathan Wiegand v. Caroline S. Russell, James Adams and Gerald Jeffords

Judge Calabresi concurs by separate opinion.

SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs appeal from two decisions rendered by Judge William K. Sessions in an action before the United States District Court for the District of Vermont. First, plaintiffs contend that the trial court erred in its July 31, 1997 grant of summary judgment, which dismissed plaintiffs’ claims of libel and slander and negligence per se. Wilkinson v. Russell, 973 F.Supp. 437 (D.Vt.1997). Second, plaintiffs appeal from the trial court’s April 3, 1998 grant of defendants’ Rule 50(a) motion for judgment as a matter of law, which…