## Facts

- Mary B. Weller was a paying patient at St. Peter’s General Hospital with a heart condition.
- The hospital’s public-relations director prepared a newspaper series about the hospital’s charitable work that was published by Home News Publishing Company.
- An article described a purported charity patient, “Prudence ‘Grandmom’ Pickett,” who was presented as destitute and Medicare-ineligible; the character was fictitious.
- The publication included a photograph captioned as “Grandmom Pickett,” depicting Weller in profile using a walker.
- Weller (and separately her daughter and son-in-law, the Semples) filed suit alleging: (1) libel of Weller, (2) libel of the Semples, and (3) invasion of Weller’s privacy based on unauthorized publication of her image in a false context.
- During the litigation, Weller died; defendants moved for summary judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether Weller’s libel claim survived her death under New Jersey’s survival statute when only general (non-pecuniary) damages were sought.
2. Whether Weller’s invasion-of-privacy claim based on a false and humiliating use of her photograph survived her death under the survival statute.
3. Whether the Semples could maintain independent libel claims based on the publication.

## Decision

- Summary judgment was granted to defendants.
- Weller’s libel claim abated upon her death and did not survive to her estate where the claim sought only general damages for reputational and emotional injury.
- Weller’s invasion-of-privacy claim likewise abated upon her death as a personal, dignitary tort not shown to involve special pecuniary loss.
- The Semples’ libel claims were dismissed because the publication was not “of and concerning” them and New Jersey law does not permit derivative recovery for distress from a relative’s alleged defamation.

## Legal Principles

- Under New Jersey law as applied, a defamation claim that seeks only general damages for injury to feelings and reputation does not survive the plaintiff’s death under the survival statute.
- A privacy claim premised on dignitary injury from unauthorized or false-context publication of a person’s image is treated as similarly personal and does not survive the person’s death absent a showing of special damages.
- Defamation liability requires that the challenged publication be reasonably understood as referring to the plaintiff (“of and concerning” requirement).
- Family members generally cannot recover for libel based solely on harm stemming from an alleged defamation of another person.

## Conclusion

The court held that Weller’s libel and privacy claims were extinguished by her death because they sought only personal, non-pecuniary redress, and it rejected her relatives’ separate libel claims because the publication did not identify them and the law does not recognize derivative defamation recovery.


Weller v. Home News Publ’g Co., 112 N.J. Super. 502, 271 A.2d 738 (N.J. Super. Ct. Law Div. 1970)