Time, Inc. v. Hill

After James Hill (plaintiff) and his family were held hostage by escaped convicts in a widely publicized 1952 incident, a 1955 Time-owned magazine article about a new Broadway play purportedly depicting the Hill family's ordeal contained factual inaccuracies about their actual experience; Hill sued Time (defendant) for portraying his family falsely, a jury awarded $75,000 in combined damages, and the New York Court of Appeals affirmed, finding the fictionalized, unauthorized portrayal unprotected by any 'newsworthiness' defense. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.