Metromedia, Inc. v. Hillman

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• stating that the libel per se only relieves the plaintiff from having to show the publication is defamatory
• analyzing the relevant statements as defamatory per quod due to the necessity of context to demonstrate their defamatory nature
• describing defamatory statements as words: “. . . the words themselves impute the defamatory character . . .”; “. . . the defamatory character of the words sued upon . . .”
• “Consistently this Court has held that words which falsely charge a person with or impute to him the commission of a crime for which he is liable to be prosecuted and punished are actionable per se”
• “[I]f spoken words convey an implication of crime, they are actionable in whatever mode their meaning may be expressed, that is, whether by way of interrogation, insinuation, ironic praise or any other form of speech understood by the hearers.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).