Myers v. Hodges

Citations

• 53 Fla. 197

Syllabus

<p>1. In order that defamatory words, published by parties, counsel or witnesses in the due course of a judicial procedure may be absolutely privileged' they must be connected with, or relevant or material to the cause in hand or subject of inquiry. If they be so published and are so relevant or pertinent to he subject of inquiry, no action will lie therefor, however false or malicious they in fact be.</p> <p><2. Defamatory words published in the due course of a judicial procedure, and not relevant or pertinent to the subject of inquiry, are conditionally or qualifiedly privileged — that is prima fade privileged. If the publications be irrelevant, they do not necessarily become actionable. They must be malicious as well as irrelevant.</p> <p>3. If it appear upon the trial that the libelous allegations were published in the due course of legal procedure, though it be proved, that the allegations were not pertinent to the legal procedure, still the law does not presume malice on the part of the defendant; but the plaintiff must prove express malice, to entitle him to recover. The simple fact that the libelous matters were published in the due course of legal procedure, though the libelous matters were impertinent, rebuts the prima fade presumption of malice, and makes it incumbent on the plaintiff to prove express malice, the case being what is called a conditionally privileged publication.</p> <p>4 In eases of conditionally privileged publications, the presumption which attends cases not so privileged of malice from the publication of libelous language does not prevail; the burden of proof is changed, and in order for the plaintiff to recover he is called upon affirmatively and expressly to show malice in the publisher. This malice may be inferred from the language of the publication itself, or may be proven by extrinsic circumstances, but malice is not inferable from the mere fact that the statements are untrue, and the mere fact that the defendant used ■ strong wor