The Lexington Herald-Leader Co. v. Beard

LEIBSON, Justice.

This case involves the scope of discovery in a libel case.

*375Respondents are thirteen former employees of the University of Kentucky’s Tobacco and Health Institute who sued the mov-ant, a Lexington newspaper, claiming that the newspaper had- published a series of articles about the Institute containing false and defamatory statements that the respondents were “fired,” that they were “incompetent, crooked, or useless,” and that the Institute was a “cesspool.”

In June, 1981, shortly after suit was filed, the respondents served a subpoena duces tecum on three reporters involved in…