1st Circuit reinstates libel suit over photo

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday reinstated a New Hampshire woman's lawsuit alleging that Boston magazine libeled her by running a photo of her and others with an article headlined, "The Mating Habits of the Suburban High School Teenager," AP reports. The 1st Circuit reversed U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor's March 2005 dismissal of Stacey Stanton's lawsuit against Metro Corp., the magazine's publisher.

AP reports:

"Saylor had found that Stanton failed to demonstrate that the photo's publication in the May 2003 issue of the magazine could be considered defamatory under Massachusetts law.

"But the three-judge panel ordered the lower court to reconsider the Manchester woman's complaint.

"The appeals court ruled that Stanton's allegations 'sufficiently state a defamation claim based on the theory that Metro negligently used Stanton's photograph to illustrate a story describing teenagers as sexually promiscuous without realizing that the publication might therefore be reasonably understood to mean that she was sexually promiscuous."

The full text of the opinion is available here.