Boston's Tom Scholz has lost a pair of defamation lawsuits against both the Boston Herald and Micki Delp, the widow of the band's former singer Brad Delp, who killed himself in 2007.

The suits stemmed from an article published in theHerald after Delp's death in which Micki Delp said that problems with Scholz triggered Brad's depression in his final days and caused him to take his own life.

Lower courts had dismissed both suits in the past, most recently in 2013, ruling that Micki was stating her opinions, speech which is therefore protected under the First Amendment.

"We conclude that the newspaper articles and statements contained therein constitute nonactionable opinions based on disclosed nondefamatory facts that do not imply undisclosed defamatory facts," the judges ruled in a unanimous decision.

"The statements at issue could not have been understood by a reasonable reader to have been anything but opinions regarding the reason Brad committed suicide."

Scholz was also ordered to pay more than $132,000 in court costs to the newspaper.