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A district court judge, (on remand from the State Supreme Court

 

Customer Question

A District Court judge, (on remand from the State Supreme Court finding in my favor against a town Zoning Board of Adjustment) in writing his judgement (or order) instructing the ZBA to grant a variance to me in accordance with the Supreme Court decision, made false and untrue statements (which I can prove). His remarks were a direct attack on my character, he impugned my integrity and damaged my reputation. His untrue remarks, in my opinion, caused the ZBA to appeal to the State Supreme Court, resulting in more Litigation cost for me, in addition to another year of squandered time. He retired from the bench a few weeks after writing the order. The case subsequently went back to the State Supreme Court on appeal, in which 3 justices found again in my favor, without hearing oral arguments, utilizing only written briefs from both sides. Do I have any recourse regarding the district court judge?

 

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Country relating to Question: United States
State (if USA): New Hampshire

Already Tried:
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Submitted: 371 days and 10 hours ago.
Category: Legal
Value: $40
Status: CLOSED

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Expert:  Law Pro replied 371 days and 10 hours ago.

Sorry, but NO.

Judge's have complete immunity UNLESS you can prove actual malice towards you.

Here's the US Supreme Court dicta on the matter (which is applicable in NH):

In many jurisdictions, legislators, judges and executive officers are clothed with absolute immunity against liability for defamatory words uttered in the discharge of their public duties. See, e.g., Barr v. Matteo, 360 U.S. 564; City of Chicago v. Tribune Co., 307 Ill., at 610, 139 N.E. at 91. Judge Learned Hand ably summarized the policies underlying the rule:

It does indeed go without saying that an official who is, in fact, guilty of using his powers to vent his spleen upon others, or for any other personal motive not connected with the public good, should not escape liability for the injuries he may so cause; and, if it were possible in practice to confine such complaints to the guilty, it would be monstrous to deny recovery. The justification for doing so is that it is impossible to know whether the claim is well founded until the [p303] case has been tried, and that to submit all officials, the innocent as well as the guilty, to the burden of a trial and to the inevitable danger of its outcome would dampen the ardor of all but the most resolute, or the most irresponsible, in the unflinching discharge of their duties. Again and again, the public interest calls for action which may turn out to be founded on a mistake, in the face of which an official may later find himself hard put to it to satisfy a jury of his good faith. There must indeed be means of punishing public officers who have been truant to their duties; but that is quite another matter from exposing such as have been honestly mistaken to suit by anyone who has suffered from their errors. As is so often the case, the answer must be found in a balance between the evils inevitable in either alternative. In this instance, it has been thought in the end better to leave unredressed the wrongs done by dishonest officers than to subject those who try to do their duty to the constant dread of retaliation. . . .

The decisions have, indeed, always imposed as a limitation upon the immunity that the official's act must have been within the scope of his powers, and it can be argued that official powers, since they exist only for the public good, never cover occasions where the public good is not their aim, and hence that to exercise a power dishonestly is necessarily to overstep its bounds. A moment's reflection shows, however, that that cannot be the meaning of the limitation without defeating the whole doctrine. What is meant by saying that the officer must be acting within his power cannot be more than that the occasion must be such as would have justified the act, if he had been using his power for any of the purposes on whose account it was vested in him. . . .

Gregoire v. Biddle, 177 F.2d 579, 581. [p304]

If the government official should be immune from libel actions, so that his ardor to serve the public will not be dampened and "fearless, vigorous, and effective administration of policies of government" not be inhibited, Barr v. Matteo, supra, at 571, then the citizen and the press should likewise be immune from libel actions for their criticism of official conduct. Their ardor as citizens will thus not be dampened, and they will be free "to applaud or to criticize the way public employees do their jobs, from the least to the most important." [n5] If liability can attach to political criticism because it damages the reputation of a public official as a public official, then no critical citizen can safely utter anything but faint praise about the government or its officials. The vigorous criticism by press and citizen of the conduct of the government of the day by the officials of the day will soon yield to silence if officials in control of government agencies, instead of answering criticisms, can resort to friendly juries to forestall criticism of their official conduct. [n6]



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Category: Legal
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Answered: 4/23/2012

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