A small Utah newspaper won big in court this week against a Millard County developer who sued the paper for defamation, alleging that the newspaper’s reporting turned the community against him.
Fourth District Judge Anthony L. Howell tossed the case out Wednesday, writing in a ruling published Thursday that developer Wayne Aston and his attorneys made “mistakes and/or misrepresentations” in their legal arguments against the Millard County Chronicle Progress.
Aston and his company, Valley Forge Impact Park Fillmore, argued in the lawsuit that the newspaper, its publishing company and editor/reporter Matt Ward printed libel in articles that questioned Aston’s business investments and plans to build a $280 million manufacturing plant in Fillmore.
Howell dismissed the complaint with prejudice, indicating in his ruling that the developer’s legal arguments failed to meet the defamation standard.
“Plaintiffs’ counsel, as experienced lawyers, should be aware of the defamation standard,” Howell wrote.
Attorneys for Aston and Valley Forge Impact Park did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday afternoon from The Salt Lake Tribune.
Aston, founder of American Spec Industries, sued the Chronicle Progress last December, alleging that the paper published five articles about Aston’s efforts to develop a factory to build modular housing that were defamatory and inaccurate.
The lawsuit argued that the “negative” articles harmed his business, causing readers to “distrust, hate and despise” Aston and his company — and led some lenders to reject his loan applications.
Aston and his company sought $19 million in damages, The Tribune reported in April.
Jeff Hunt, an attorney for the Chronicle Progress, told The Tribune in January that the paper “stands by its reporting and intends to vigorously defend against Mr. Aston’s lawsuit.” The paper, Hunt noted, has been covering Millard County for 130 years — and as of January had a staff of four people.
The paper fought back against the lawsuit, citing a 2023 Utah law called the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act that aims to deter abusive lawsuits intended to silence free speech through long and meritless court battles.
In his ruling, Howell said it was “unclear” why Aston and his company made “repeated mistakes/representations to the court” in their original filings or in two amended complaints filed early this year.
“Certainly, Plaintiffs, having access to the articles at issue, would be aware as to what terms/phrases were actually asserted against Plaintiffs, as compared to those used by Plaintiffs against others, and the parts of speech those words represent based on their function in the statement(s) at issue,” Howell wrote.
Howell also noted that Aston’s attorneys tried to argue that the paper printed “accurate statements made at an earlier point in time [that] became defamatory statements later by a future event.”
“At no point do Plaintiffs attempt to support this assertion with any viable legal support,” the judge added.
The developer, in March 2022, announced plans to build a factory to produce modular housing units. By August 2023, the Chronicle Progress reported Aston’s plans had changed. Ward reported at the time that the development agreement no longer proposed building modular housing, but a facility which would turn construction waste into other building products.
Ward in an article cited comments from a Fillmore City Council meeting, during which city officials had seemed to sour on Aston’s plans. Aston argued in the lawsuit that the city has never “completely rejected” his project, and that he continued to work with them to revise details in the development agreement.
Howell concluded his ruling by admonishing Aston and his company because they “failed to clarify or otherwise explain the aforementioned mistakes and/or representations even after they were noted by Defendants” under the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure.
