Supreme Court of California

In the context of the statute of limitations on a cause of action for defamation, the single-publication rule applies not only to books and newspapers that are published with general circulation, but also to publications that are given only limited circulation and, thus, are not generally distributed to the public. Further, the discovery rule, which does not apply when a book or newspaper is generally distributed to the public, does not apply even when a publication is given only limited distribution.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/24/2007
• Published 12/27/2007

Judges

• MORENO, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Law Office of Paul Kleven and Paul Kleven, Berkeley, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Carlson, Calladine & Peterson, Michael C. Cooper, San Francisco;  Steefel, Levitt & Weiss and Barry W. Lee, San Francisco, for Defendants and Respondents., Horvitz & Levy, John A. Taylor, Jr., and Jeremy B. Rosen, Encino, for Aeonix Publishing Group, The American Association of Law Libraries, The American Society for Information Science and Technology, The Association for Documentary Editing, The Association of Research Libraries, Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, The Independent Book Publishers Association, The Medical Library Association, The National Coalition for History, Nestlé USA, Inc., The Oral History Association, The Small Press Center, The Society of American Archivists, The Southern California Association of Law Libraries and The Special Libraries Association as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Christopher M. Patti, Oakland;  Munger, Tolles & Olson, Bradley S. Phillips, Los Angeles, and Ailsa W. Chang, for The Regents of the University of California as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents.