Bennington Banner from Bennington, Vermont • 5

NEW ENGLAND Tuesday, April 19, 1983 Benningt6n Banner rage 5 fiiyif wmV'V iWMfy T'WTff fffyfftrmftWfWf ft Vermont court issues defamation ruling The high court also rejected Dun Bradstreets claim the $300,000 in punitive damages was excessive, saying damage awards by juries cannot be reversed unless they resulted from perverted judgment, accident or gross mistake." It said the award to Greenmoss builders did not fit any of those three criteria. The high court said the error prompting the lawsuit evolved when Dun Bradstreet published information it had received from a teenager paid $200 a year to review Vermont bankruptcy petition. It said the youth inadvertantly attributed the bankruptcy petition of a former Greenmoss employee to the company itself, and Dun Bradstreet published the information in Green-mosss credit report without verifying its accuracy. Thomas Heilmann, the Burlington attorney who represented Greenmoss, said Monday a ruling against his client also would have hurt the news media. The Supreme Court reaffirmed what has always been Vermont law, he said.

It decided that credit reporting agencies are different than the news When you try to cross apples and pears, you run into trouble. sequences of a false credit or character report than the agency, it said. And, it said while malice must be shown in defamation lawsuits against news reporters, the First Amendment protections do not extend to companies in the business of selling financial reports to a limited number of subscribers who have paid substantial There is a clear distinction between a publication which disseminates news for public consumption and one which provides specialized information to a selective, finite audience, Justice William Hill wrote in the unanimous decision. The ruling marked the first time the state Supreme Court expressly denied credit agencies defamation protections under the U.S. Constitution.

And, it delineated the uses in Vermont of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding media protections. The judge who presided at the initial trial, believing he had erred by not telling the jury of the malice standards established by the U.S. Supreme Court decision, had granted motion for a new trial. But the states high court said the standards did not apply and there was no need for a new trial.

By KEVIN GODDARD MONTPELIER (UPI) The Vermont Supreme Court has refused to extend to non-media companies First Amendment rights protecting news organizations from defamation awards evolving from erroneous but not malicious information. The precedent-setting ruling Monday struck down an argument by Dun Bradstreet, which was ordered to pay $300,000 in punitive damages to a Waitsfield firm for falsely asserting in a financial report that the firm filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. Greenmoss Builders Inc. argued successfully to a lower court jury the erroneous information had been provided to several of its creditors, damaging its business and its reputation. Dun Bradstreet one of the nation's largest credit reporting companies told the Supreme Court it should be considered a publisher or broadcaster," and held Immune from punitive damages unless malice could be demonstrated.

But the high court rejected the argument. In balancing the equities between a credit reporting agency and the individual it has we note that an individual living in a world more and more dominated by large (companies) is less able to con Fire kills seven at Worcester, halfway house VERMONT BRIEFS Utility will save money MONTPELIER (UPI) The Vermont Public Power Supply Authority, capitalizing on a significant drop in interest rates, has refinanced its 19 percent investment in Burlingtons Joseph McNeil wood-chip burning power plant, officials said today. VPPSA spokesman Dennis Gravelin said the company expects to save $16.4 million over the 30-year life of the $33.7 million bond issue. He said interest rates were 14.8 percent when the financing package was put on the bond market in June of last year, but have now dropped 5 percentage points, to 9.8 percent. I think its just the timing and the market, he said.

Inflation has something to do with it. VPPSA is a group of small, municipal power companies that have banded together for purchases of electricity, and said the savings from its refinancing package will be passed along to ratepayers. It said member ratepayers in Enosburg Falls will save $31,500 each year, and those in Hardwick will save $39,000 annually. It said members in Ludlow will save $52,600 annually; Lyndonville, Morrisville, Northfield, Stowe, and Swanton, $97,500. Gravelin said the McNeil power generating station is about 56 percent completed.

More students eye college MONTPELIER (UPI), A recent study by the Vermont Student Assistance Corp. shows more Vermont high school seniors than ever plan to go on to college. VSAC surveyed more than 6,000 of the 8,000 students who will graduate from high school this year. Of those, 55 percent said they planned to attend college, and 20 percent said they will go on to some other type of training. Sixty-one percent of those who plan to go to college said they wanted to attend a Vermont institution.

The study also indicated a significant shift over the past five years toward technical and business fields. Guerrilla says time wasted BURLINGTON (UPI) A representative of the guerrilla forces in war-torn El Salvador says the United States is wasting its money trying to keep a repressive government in power. Amaldo Ramos of the Democratic Revolutionary Front spoke Saturday at City Hall Park to a partison crowd of about 120. He said U.S. involvement in El Salvador has accomplished nothing but the loss of lives, and added no amount of American money can keep the government in power, because the revolution has the support of the public.

We are everywhere, Ramos said. He called the civil war a no-win situation for the United States, one comparable to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The major problem for the poor and peasants in his homeland is the fact that the country is controlled by wealthy landowners and foreign corporations, Ramos said. He was introduced by Burlingtons socialist, independent Mayor Bernard Sanders, who expressed support for the rebel cause.

Three face drug charge SOUTH BURLINGTON (UPI) Three men were held today in the Chittenden Community Correctional Center for lack of bail on charges stemming from a raid police said yielded 600 pounds of marijuana. Anthony Nargi, 42, of Starksboro, his brother Paul, 37, and Joseph Rarisi, 34 both Qf Clifton, N.J. were taken into custody last Thursday night at the Burlington International Airport, officials said. A U.S. District Court probable cause hearing was reportedly scheduled for Wednesday, and officials said the three were to be charged with intending to distribute the pot.

A plane used to bring in the marijuana was also seized by officials, they said, as was a van intercepted by authorities as it allegedly tried to leave the airport with the bales of pot. Bail for Anthony Nargi was set at $5,000, and the two New Jersey men were each held for lack of $3,000 bail. WORCESTER, Mass. (UPI) -Flames leaping through windows and doors gutted a downtown halfway house for mental patients early today, killing seven people and forcing residents wearing bedclothes to jump to safety in the rain. Six of the victims were killed instantly and a seventh died later at a city hospital, said Worcester police Lt.

Reginald Needham. Fire Chief James Mally said all 26 people who lived in the four-story wooden-frame house were accounted for and the 19 survivors were given temporary shelter by the Red Cross. Others went to the homes of family and friends. Needham said the survivors, many of whom were standing outside the building in the rain wearing bedclothes and bed sheets, were taken to a downtown hospital and were treated and released for minor injuries. At least one resident leaped out a second-story window and landed on top of a firefighter, Mally said, but it was unknown if either was injured.

There was a great deal of confusion naturally, he said. The pause of the three-alarm blaze, which broke out at about 2:20 a. m. EST and took firefighters about 90 minutes to extinguish, was under investigation. Those killed were brought to City Hospital and were not immediately identified, he said.

They are just beginning the process of identifying the people, Needham said. To the best of my knowledge, everybody has been accounted for. We expect seven will be it. The blaze had engulfed most of the second floor of the four-story wood-frame structure on Main Street when firefighters arrived, Needham said. Flames leaped out of windows and out the front door, driving back officers trying to enter the burning building.

A couple of officers tried to get in but were forced back by the heat and flames, he said. Pretty much the backside of it where it looks where it started is damaged, he said. There is quite a bit of structural damage. Gutted would probably fit it. Firefighters extinguished the blaze shortly before 4 a 1 1 Vermonter will meet Reagan LUDLOW (UPI) A Ludlow businessman has an appointment at the White House this week.

Herbert VanGuilder is one of 145 members of the Small Business Administrations National Advisory Council, which is scheduled to meet with President Reagan Friday. State meeting schedule UPI Firemen leave halfway house in Worcester, where a fire killed seven residents early today. I I Board, Holiday Inn, Waterbury Vermont Board of Dental Examiners, 4th floor conference room. Pavilion Office Building, 109 State St. Fish and Game Board, National Guard Armory, Route 2, Wilbston.

THURSDAY, Ap-U 21 9 30 a.m.: Vermont Labor Relations Board, 13 Baldwin St. 9 30 a.m.: Vermont Industrial Development Authority, Woodstock Inn, Woodstock. 10 a.m.: Vermont Board of Architects, 4th floor conference room, Pavilion Office Building, 109 State St. 1 30 Vermont Alchohol and Drug Abuse Advisory Council, Room 101, Training Center, State Office Complex, Waterbary. FRIDAY, April 22 1 p.m Vermont Municipal Bond Bank, the Howard Bank, 11 Main St Burlington.

MONTPELIER (UPI) The following is a list of state government meetings for the week of April 18-22. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are in Montpelier. TUESDAY, April 19 10 a.m.: State Board of Education, Education Department conference room, 5th floor, State Office Building, 120 State St. Vermont Housing Finance Agency, 239 South Union Burlington. WEDNESDAY, April 20 9.30 a.m.: Human Services Board, 1st floor conference room, Heritage II, 79 River St.

9 30 a.m.: Vermont Labor Relations Board, 13 Baldwin 10 a.m.: Vermont Office on Aging Advisory LOVESICK 6v JAVERY MEMORIALS 442-2820 or Call Mrs. Alan H. Page 517 South Street Bennington, Vermont SAT. SUN. 7:00 9:00 7:30 P.M.

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