Morsette v. ''The Final Call''

In Morsette v. "The Final Call", 309 A.D.2d 249 (1st Dep't 2003), the plaintiff was the mother of a young boy and a successful businesswoman. The defendant, a weekly newspaper of the Nation of Islam, published an article about mothers in prison. Along with the article is a picture of three women holding two children. One of the women was the plaintiff holding her son. Another photograph which accompanied the article was of the plaintiff and was edited to make it appear that the plaintiff was wearing prison attire. At trial, it was established that the plaintiff had never been imprisoned and that the defendant chose the photograph at random from a "photo file" to use in connection with the article. The newspaper later printed a clarification stating that the photograph was for illustration only. However, the clarification referred to the wrong edition of the newspaper. The Appellate Division affirmed the jury's award of $ 40,000.00 for presumed harm to reputation and $ 100,000.00 for four years of emotional distress suffered prior to trial. In addition, the Appellate Division found that evidence existed to support of award of $ 300,000.00 for future emotional distress.