Lakian Asks High Court to Consider Case

After losing his 1985 libel suit against The Boston Globe, Westwood Republican John R. Lakian is asking the state's highest court to review the case on the grounds that the trial judge made a legal error.

Lakian, who blames the newspaper for wrecking his 1982 campaign for governor, has also filed an appeal in the Appeals Court seeking to reverse the judgment and win "nominal damages" of at least a penny as proof that he was right.

"This is worth everything that it's cost him. All that he wants is what the jury gave him--he wants his reputation back," Lakian's attorney, Norman Roy Grutman, said yesterday in a telephone interview from his New York City office.

In his lengthy brief to the Appeals Court, Lakian argues that Superior Court Judge George Jacobs made a mistake last August 12 when he entered judgment for the newspaper after a jury found that three paragraphs in an article about Lakian were false, defamatory and published recklessly.

As a matter of law, the brief says, Lakian is entitled to the judgment and to a token award, as well as some minor court costs.

At the same time, Lakian is asking the state Supreme Court to bypass the Appeals Court and review the case directly.

In his application to the high court, Grutnam complained that "the public largely perceives the situation to be one in which the defamers prevailed." He also said Jacob's action makes "a sham" of the verdict.

"By a gross misinterpretation of the law, [Lakian] has been robbed of the judgment to which the jury's verdict entitled him," the brief said.

Attorney Francis Fox, who defended the Globe, said he has filed a statement urging the high court not to take the case. The Supreme Court has not addressed the issue yet.

At the same time, Fox said he would file a document with the Appeals Court seeking a "summary affirmance" that would uphold the trial court's judgment favorable to the Globe.

"We are saying no, you agreed on the way the jury was instructed, so you cannot complain about what they jury did. It's kind of a technical point, but it should dispose of the whole case," Fox said in an interview. "I'm saying, please put the case out of its misery."

If that is rejected, Fox said, he will prepare a lengthy brief on the legal issues in the four-year-old case.

"He writes an 80-page brief, and I keep wondering, there must be an issue there. But I don't see it," Fox said.

The appeal is important, Fox said, aside from the question of vindication because Lakian has another lawsuit pending against the Globe on behalf of his Fort Hill investment company, which Lakian claims was damaged by the article. If he prevails in the personal libel case, Lakian would be in a stronger position to collect substantial damages in the Fort Hill case.

In his original lawsuit, Lakian, a self-made millionaire from Westwood, claimed that the Globe damaged his reputation and derailed his gubernatorial campaign in a front-page article by reporter Walter Robinson on August 18, 1982.

In the article, Robinson reported on "a pattern of discrepancies" and suggested that Lakian exaggerated in his campaign literature about his background, schooling, military career and business success.

Using a special verdict slip prepared by Judge Jacobs, the jury found that three out of 52 paragraphs were false, defamatory and published with"knowledge of its falsity or while having seriousdoubts about its truth."

The jurors went on to award Lakian zero damagesfor his "actual injury," which Jacobs had definedas an essential of libel.

On appeal, Lakian argues that Jacobs made alegal error by declaring that the Globe had won.

"Symbolic nominal damages must be awarded wherea defamation plaintiff...has demonstrated that thedefendant has breached a duty owed to plaintiff,"Grutman wrote in the brief. "This award is givenin vindication of plaintiff's rights and does notdepend upon proof that plaintiff suffered anyactual or quantifiable amount of damages toreputation.