Summers v. Binns

Defendant Stevens appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff on a defamation claim. Stevens assigns error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for a directed verdict and its failure to instruct the jury as to absolute and qualified privileges. We affirm.

Because the jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff, we state the facts in the light most favorable to him. John Jackson was embroiled in a custody dispute with his former spouse, Rebecca Bates. Bates lived in Newberg, Oregon, and Jackson lived in Reno, Nevada. In the proceeding that dissolved Jackson and Bates’s marriage, the…