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from www.bizjournals.com – The estate of the murdered wife of pro wrestler Chris Benoit is entitled to compensatory damages but not punitive damages from Hustler magazine for publishing nude photos of her, an Atlanta-based federal court ruled Tuesday.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court decision ordering LFP Publishing Group LLC to pay the estate of Nancy Benoit $250,000 in punitive damages.

The couple died in a murder-suicide perpetrated by Chris Benoit in Fayette County, Ga., in 2007.

During the intense media coverage that followed the high-profile crime, Hustler published 20-year-old nude photos of Nancy Benoit.

Her estate sued the magazine and won $125,000 in compensatory damages and an additional $19.6 million in punitive damages.

However, a U.S. district court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $250,000, a ruling that both sides appealed.

In an eight-page opinion issued Tuesday, the appellate court ruled that Hustler executives mistakenly believed they were on solid legal ground in publishing the photos without permission because the subject was newsworthy, thus qualifying for an exception to Georgia’s right of publicity.

In addition to the magazine receiving legal advice at least three times that publishing the photos was legally permissible, the appellate court noted the district court that originally accepted the case agreed that it met the newsworthiness exception and dismissed the lawsuit.

“Although that decision of the district court was ultimately reversed … we do not believe that publishers should be held to a higher standard than that of the learned district judge,” the appellate judges wrote.

Derek Bauer, a partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP , who represented the magazine, said the case showed that even judges can disagree over what is news and what is not.

“The key issue was whether a jury determination a year and a half after publication could be justification for punishing a publisher for guessing wrong,” he said.

Bauer said Hustler disagreed with the amount of compensatory damages awarded, which was based on the commercial value of the photos, but chose not to appeal that portion of the ruling.