Defamation

“ Cooperation in Defamation.—Not only the defamer sins, but also those who cooperate with him. Among the cooperators with defamation are those who give orders for defamation, those who show how it can be done, those who protect defamers, and those who participate in defamation by directing the conversation to a certain subject or by joining in the criticisms. The most ordinary form of participation in defamation is that of the listener, for no one defames successfully unless he has a sympathetic listener. ”

“ We know nothing, Ned, absolutely nothing. We should only bring ourselves into trouble, lay ourselves open to a criminal action for defamation, which the most skillful lawyer in the land could not successfully defend. ”

“ It is assumed that in every case of defamation intention is a necessary element; but in the ordinary case, when a statement is false and defamatory, the law presumes that it has been made or published with an evil intent, and will not allow this presumption to be rebutted by evidence or submitted as matter of fact to a jury. ”

“ A particular form of defamation was scandalum magnatum, “slander of great men,” words, that is, spoken defaming a peer spiritual or temporal, judge or dignitary of the realm. Action lay for such defamation under the statutes of 3 Edw. I. c. 34, 2 Rich. II. c. 5, and 12 Rich. II. c. 11 whereby damages could be recovered, even in cases where no action would lie, if the defamation were of an ordinary subject, and that without proof of special damage. ”

“ If, in the case of calumny, the listeners are unwilling to accept the formal statement that the defamation was untrue, the defamer is obliged to nothing more. For the slanderer has done all that is possible to change the erroneous view of the listeners, and the bad opinion they have of their neighbor must now be attributed, not to the defamer, but to their own wickedness or stubbornness. ”

“ Under the law of defamation, an expression of opinion could be defamatory if the expression was sufficiently derogatory of another as to cause harm to his reputation, so as to lower him in the estimation of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with him. ”

“ Moreover, the preventive effect of liability for defamation serves an important public purpose. For the rights and values of private personality far transcend mere personal interests. Surely if the 1950's taught us anything, they taught us that the poisonous atmosphere of the easy lie can infect and degrade a whole society. ”

“ The defamer destroys his own good name, at least in the sight of God, for he defiles his own soul with guilt; he disgraces himself before others, since it is well known that defamation is the vice of those who feel themselves inferior or guilty. And, worst of all, his sin is seldom repented of or repaired by satisfaction, since the defamer is generally too proud, hateful, jealous or revengeful to acknowledge his error, or is so blind that the thought of the harm he has done and of the grave obligation of satisfaction never crosses his mind. ”

“ The Courts of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Texas, however, still adhere to the old rule and admit the evidence of non-experts only in cases of wills (339) .
CHAPTER X. DEFAMATION.
No man may disparage the reputation of another. Every one has a right to have his good name maintained, unimpaired. Words which produce any perceptible injury to the reputation of another are called defamatory: and if they are false they are actionable. False and malicious defamatory words, if in printing, writing, pictures or signs, and published, constitute a libel; if spoken, a slander. ”

“ As the common law developed in this country, apart from the issue of damages, one usually needed only allege an unprivileged publication of false and defamatory matter to state a cause of action for defamation. ”

“ Finally, by insisting on adherence to the actual malice requirement even where a defamation plaintiff agrees to seek *9 not substantial damages but merely a reputation-restoring judicial determination that defamatory statements are false, the court of appeals prevents a form of reputational vindication that would be consistent with the common law origins and history of the tort of defamation, as well as with the purpose and rationale of Sullivan, and which several judges and scholars have strongly advocated. ”

“ Defamation.—The term ‘defamation’ means any action or other proceeding for defamation, libel, slander, or similar claim alleging that forms of speech are false, have caused damage to reputation or emotional distress, have presented any person in a false light, or have resulted in criticism, dishonor, or condemnation of any person. ”

“ For the purposes of the newspaper writer, libel may be defined as malicious defamation, either written or printed, charging on or imputing to another that which renders him liable to imprisonment, or tends to injure his reputation in the common estimation of mankind, or to hold him up as an object of hatred, scorn, ridicule or contempt.
Slander is malicious defamation by speech or oral language; hence the newspaper writer has no especial concern for the law relating to it, further than to remember one general principle—that the law of libel is much stricter than the law of slander. ”

“ This protection is a part of that general security which the common law affords against defamation, that is, against malicious and false imputations upon one's character,-as it defends against injurious assaults upon one's person, even though the defamation is created by publication made by himself under compulsion. The defamation arising from self-incrimination may be equally injurious, as if originating purely from the maliciousness of others. ”

“ Secondly, when there is danger of involving the innocent with the guilty, from inability to define the crime in precise language. Hence it is that rude behaviour, treachery, and ingratitude are not punished by law; and that in countries where the voice of the people controls the hand of the legislature, there is a great dread of making defamation, especially of the government, an offence at law. ”

“ The defendant in a defamation action brought by a public official cannot, however, automatically insure a favorable verdict by testifying that he published with a belief that the statements were true. ”

“ By reason of the injury done defamation is either detraction or calumny. Detraction blackens a reputation by revealing faults or defects that are real; calumny (slander) injures reputation by stories that are untrue. ”

“ Defamation is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. ”

“ The person of the defamer increases the harm when his authority is greater. A person who is supposed to be better informed (e.g., one who reports that he was an eyewitness of the event he narrates) , or who enjoys a better reputation for truth (e.g., one who is in an official position, or who is thought to be honest and disinterested) , does more harm by defamation than another whose authority is weak. ”

“ The Court is required to weigh the nuances of each particular circumstances on its scale of values regarding the relative importance of society's interest in protecting individuals from defamation against the importance of a free press. ”

“ He charged his minister, in a publick paper, with scandal, defamation, and falsehood. The minister, thus reproached, had his own character to vindicate, upon which his pastoral authority must necessarily depend. To be charged with a defamatory lie is an injury which no man patiently endures in common life. To be charged with polluting the pastoral office with scandal and falsehood, was a violation of character still more atrocious, as it affected not only his personal but his clerical veracity. ”

“ Thus, to say that a layman is a confirmed liar or loves the opposite sex might be only a venial sin or no sin at all, but the same statements about a grave cleric would be seriously defamatory.
2050. Defamation supposes that the party who is injured is in possession of a good name. But it is possible that the same individual who enjoys a good name in one place or time, has a bad name in another place or time. Hence, a number of special cases on defamation present themselves for consideration. ”

“ Nevertheless, since the Complainant has tried to make this an issue of whether the Respondent has defamed Mr. Beck, and the Panel may take that into account, the Respondent will provide a representative sampling of authority that should convince even the most skeptical panelist that even if he were empowered to adjudicate a defamation claim, he would still find for the Respondent.
When it comes to defamation, it is not a simple matter of (False Statement) + (Angry Plaintiff) = Defamation. Context is everything. See Greenbelt Coop. ”

“ However, due to concerns that unduly burdensome defamation laws could stifle valuable public debate, the privilege of "fair comment" was incorporated into the common law as an affirmative defense to an action for defamation. "The principle of 'fair comment' afford [ed] legal immunity for the honest expression of opinion on matters of legitimate public interest when based upon a true or privileged statement of fact." ”

“ Defamation, either real or supposed, is the cause of most of those combats which no laws have yet been able to suppress. If lawgivers had originally condescended to pay some attention to the passions and feelings of those for whom they were to legislate, these appeals to arms would never have usurped a power superior to the laws ”

“ The court below rejected the contention in its judgment, saying, "It is the purport of the Decision of the Supreme Court (Decision of the 1st Petty Bench, May 7, 1969, Supreme Court Criminal Report Vol. 13, No. 5, p. 641) that the accused is not entitled to be exempted from criminal liability for defamation, notwithstanding his mistaken belief in the existence of the facts so long as it is not proved", and held that the accused could not be exempted from criminal liability for defamation, even if there had been good reason for his mistaken belief in the existence of the facts. ”

“ That rule should not be applied except where a State's law of defamation has been unconstitutionally converted into a law of seditious libel. [3] The First and Fourteenth Amendments have not stripped private citizens of all means of redress for injuries inflicted upon them by careless liars. [4] The destruction that defamatory falsehood can bring is, to be sure, often beyond the capacity of the law to redeem. Yet, imperfect though it is, an action for damages is the only hope for vindication or redress the law gives to a man whose reputation has been falsely dishonored. ”

“ If any one writes us in defamation of another, we adopt the opposite theory. If the letter says that the assaulted one lies, we take it as eulogistic of his veracity; or that he is unchaste, we set him down as pure ”

“ The Constitution does not tolerate actions for libel on government. State defamation laws, therefore, whether civil or criminal, cannot constitutionally be converted into laws against seditious libel. ”

“ Defamation consists in maliciously poisoning the minds of others against the party assaulted by printing, writing, &c., thereby bringing on them some of the consequences provided against in the statute. The statute is intended to, and does, prohibit the malicious poisoning of the minds of others against a citizen, under the protection of the law, by the use of public printing, &c., and this inhibition attaches whether done directly by the wording of the thing complained of, or indirectly by insinuation, imputation, or suggestion. ”

“ The issue in an action for defamation is not the character of the plaintiff, but the wrongfulness of the particular statement. Therefore "it is not a defense to a libel or slander that the plaintiff has been guilty of offenses other than those imputed to him, or of offenses of a similar character; and such facts are not competent in mitigation of damages."
As the gist of the tort consists of the injury done to one's reputation, the defamatory statement must have been published. A person has no cause of action against another for defamatory words spoken to him ”

“ All contemptuous, spiteful, haughty, calumniating expressions must be avoided and not so much as even insinuated to the defamation of any particular [Pg 46] person or rank, much less against those to whom an affront would alienate the minds of the judges. To be so imprudent as to attack judges themselves, not openly, but in any indirect manner, would be most unwise. ”

“ First, he argues that the private individual, unlike the public figure, does not have access to the media to counter the defamatory material and that the private individual, unlike the public figure, has not assumed the risk of defamation by thrusting himself into the public arena. Second, petitioner focuses on the important values served by the law of defamation in preventing and redressing attacks upon reputation. ”

“ Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 499, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1958, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984) (quoting New York Times, 376 U.S., at 284-286, 84 S.Ct., at 728-729) . "The question whether the evidence in the record in a defamation case is sufficient to support a finding of actual malice is a question of law." ”

“ I therefore adhere to the New York Times standard in the case of 'public figures' as well as 'public officials.' It is a manageable standard, readily stated and understood, which also balances to a proper degree the legitimate interests traditionaly protected by the law of defamation. Its definition of 'actual malice' is not so restrictive that recovery is limited to situations where there is 'knowing falsehood' on the part of the publisher of false and defamatory matter. ”