Walker v. Cahalan

Lee Dell Walker brought in circuit court an action for defamation against William Cahalan, the Wayne County prosecutor, Pete Waldmeir, a newspaper columnist, and The Detroit News. This action arose out of a letter written by defendant Cahalan in 1974 and addressed to the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the Michigan House of Representatives, which was then considering a bill to appropriate $25,000 to partially reimburse Walker for the time he spent in prison. The letter recounted the facts surrounding the 1954 murder of a grocery store owner, the nature of Walker's confession to that murder, and the history of the legal proceeding from Walker's conviction by a jury of first-degree murder through the numerous appeals which were affirmed, the eventual granting of a new trial, and the decision by the prosecutor to nolle prosequi the case because of the relocation of the witnesses and the destruction of evidence which had occurred in the intervening 18 years. The letter concluded that any fair-minded person could reach no Conclusion other than that Walker murdered the grocery store owner. A copy of this letter was sent by defendant Cahalan to defendant Waldmeir, who incorporated the contents of that letter in his column published by defendant The Detroit News. Following removal of this cause to the Federal court system for consideration of plaintiff's count relative to the violation of his civil rights, which resulted in summary judgment in favor of all defendants on that count, and upon the return of the cause to Wayne Circuit Court, defendant Cahalan moved for summary judgment in circuit court, averring by affidavit that he bore no malice towards Walker and that he believed the statements in the letter to be true. The Wayne Circuit Court, Theodore R. Bohn, J., granted defendant Cahalan's motion for summary judgment, finding that Walker failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Walker appealed, During the pendency of this appeal, Lee Dell Walker died, and Sharon Walker, as personal representative of the estate of Lee Dell Walker, was, by stipulation of the parties, substituted as plaintiff-appellant in the matter. Held : 1. A motion for summary judgment based upon the failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted tests the legal sufficiency of the pleadings. A motion for summary judgment based upon the ground that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact tests the factual support of a claim. A motion for summary judgment brought under the subsection of the court rules dealing with the failure to state a claim but which seeks to test the sufficiency of the facts will be treated as having been brought under the subsection of the rule concerning the absence of any genuine issue as to any material fact, if it is determined that neither party was misled by the failure to cite the proper subsection of the court rules.