EMMA OXNEVAD

eoxnevad@lawbulletinmedia.com

Appeals court affirms tossing suit by former Northwestern coach

Northwestern University's former baseball coach cannot pursue a lawsuit alleging that a Chicago Tribune article defamed him and cost him his job, a state appellate panel held.

A panel of the 1st District Appellate Court affirmed the dismissal of James Foster's case against the Tribune. It found that statements in the article made by anonymous sources were innocently constructed and that Foster failed to allege that he faced special damages.

But the panel criticized the Tribune for including "extraneous details" in its reporting that "may fairly be criticized as lacking sound journalistic judgment."

Justice Carl A. Walker delivered the judgment of the court.

Foster sued the Tribune in 2024 over an article published the previous year that reported his termination from the university. The article stated that Foster was fired after an internal investigation initiated by complaints from players.

The lawsuit alleged that the article contained false and defamatory statements from anonymous players and individuals close to the program who claimed Foster discouraged players from seeing the team trainer and pressured injured players to fast-track their recovery to keep their spot on the team.

Further, Foster alleged that the article constituted false light invasion of privacy by including a passage implying he was responsible for the 2011 death of a student athlete at his previous position at the University of Rhode Island.

The student, 20-year-old Joseph Ciancola, collapsed while running during an outdoor strength and conditioning session with the baseball team and died three days later at a hospital. Ciancola's family sued the university and eventually settled for $1.45 million, according to the article.

Foster claimed that he had no involvement in the workout that caused Ciancola's death and that the inclusion of that information alongside the allegations of player mistreatment at Northwestern created the opposite impression. He further alleged that the Tribune's article was the proximate cause of his firing and caused him to suffer injury to his reputation and professional aspirations, in addition to lost income.

The Tribune moved to dismiss and argued that the defamation claim failed because the statements were capable of an innocent construction and constituted non-actionable opinion. It also claimed that the false light claim failed because Foster didn't identify any underlying false statements and failed to plead special damages.

It also noted that the article was published after Foster was fired.

Judge Stephanie D. Saltouros granted the motion.

Foster appealed.

In the panel's nonprecedential Rule 23 order, filed Friday, Walker affirmed the dismissal of Foster's defamation claims.

Walker found that the statements made by anonymous Northwestern sources were communicating opinions rather than facts and were therefore non-actionable.

"The statements in the article were that sources close to the program 'claimed' Foster engaged in that conduct in comments they made to the Tribune," he wrote. "Thus, the actual statements in the article are simply that certain sources made certain comments to the Tribune, and the truth of whether those sources in fact made those comments to the Tribune is not challenged in Foster's complaint. As such, facially, there is no claim that the Northwestern statements are false and thus cannot form the basis of a defamation claim."

Walker also affirmed the dismissal of Foster's false light claim because he did not include allegations describing special damages in his complaint.

He also noted that the false light claim was predicated on the characterization of the Northwestern statements being defamatory per se, which the panel already rejected.

"Foster protests that he was not involved in the events leading to Ciancola's death, and we have no reason on this record to doubt this representation," Walker wrote. "But the article did not state that he was, meaning that to successfully state a claim, Foster needed to include certain allegations which are simply absent from his complaint."

But Walker also wrote that the Tribune's reporting on Foster's previous role at the University of Rhode Island "included extraneous details that bore little connection to Foster."

"While such editorial choices may fairly be criticized as lacking sound journalistic judgment, the First Amendment protects even reporting that may be viewed as imprudent or lacking editorial restraint," he wrote. "Because the publication is legally protected, we affirm the circuit cour t's dismissal of Foster's complaint."

Justices Aurelia Pucinski and Michael B. Hyman concurred in the judgment.

James M. Kelly and Wayne D. Skigen of James Kelly Law Firm represented Foster. They couldn't be reached for comment.

Steven P. Mandell and Brian Saucier of Mandell Menkes LLC represented the Tribune.

"By affirming Judge Saltouras' dismissal of Foster's claims, the court recognized that a journalist's ability to do their job would be impaired if they could be held liable for the statements of parties on opposite sides of a contentious dispute," Mandell said in an email. "This decision is a win for freedom of the press."

The case is Foster v. Chicago Tribune Company LLC 2026 IL App (1st) 250313-U.