John A. Guidice v. JAMES L. PRIEST; INDYNE, INC., named as Indyne/WROIC

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
JOHN A. GUIDICE,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
JAMES L. PRIEST; INDYNE, INC.,
named as Indyne/WROIC,
Defendants - Appellees.
No. 13-56240
D.C. No. 2:13-cv-01856-MWF-
JEM
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Michael W. Fitzgerald, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted May 13, 2015**
Before: LEAVY, CALLAHAN, and M. SMITH, Circuit Judges.
John A. Guidice appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing
his defamation action arising from events that occurred on Vandenberg Air Force
Base. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo a
FILED
MAY 19 2015
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

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dismissal for failure to state a claim, Pride v. Correa, 719 F.3d 1130, 1133 (9th
Cir. 2013), and we affirm.
The district court properly dismissed Guidice’s defamation claim because
Priest’s statement that Guidice shouted is not actionable. See Taus v. Loftus, 151
P.3d 1185, 1209 (Cal. 2007) (setting forth elements of a defamation claim and
explaining that an expression of opinion cannot form the basis of a defamation
action); Grillo v. Smith, 193 Cal. Rptr. 414, 417 (Ct. App. 1983) (“The words
‘angry,’ ‘shouted,’ [and] ‘stormed,’ . . . fall clearly on the opinion side of the line.
They are subjective words . . . of the sort which have been found to be opinion as a
matter of law frequently in the past.”).
AFFIRMED.
13-56240 2

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