Libel Limited

The plaintiff in Moore v. Dallas Morning News had an unusual argument against the one-year statute of limitations claim for a libel claim: he was incarcerated and couldn’t access the article at issue. The Fifth Court didn’t accept his argument, particularly when the plaintiff was – literally – aware of his alleged injury:

Moore complains that because he had no access to a telephone with an internet connection, he did not actually see and read the Article until months after he was released from incarceration. But the Article was not hidden or undetectable; it was readily available to the public. The fact that Moore himself did not read the Article within one year did not mean his injury was undiscoverable.  It is the plaintiff’s injury that must be inherently undiscoverable to invoke the discovery rule. As we have repeated, Moore learned of the injury to his reputation when he was attacked in prison.

No. 05-22-01286-CV (July 17, 2024) (mem. op.).