Lathan v. Journal Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 54 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 80 later decisions — most recently May 2024 · most notably 149 Wis. 2d 913 - Zinda v. Louisiana Pacific Corp. (1989), 68 Wis. 2d 487 - Calero v. Del Chemical Corp. (1975)
5 federal appellate · 54 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Garrison v. State of Louisiana · Rosenblatt v. Baer · Williams v. Journal Co. · Fuller v. General Accident Fire & Life Assurance Corp.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 80 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A communication is defamatory if it tends so to harm the reputation of another as to lower him in the estimation of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with him.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage“; all that is required is that the statement be”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage““It is not necessary to prove the literal truth of the precise statement made. Slight inaccuracies of expression are immaterial provided that the defamatory charge is true in substance.” Restatement, 3 Torts, p. 218, Sec. 582; Lathan v. Journal Company, supra, at 158, 140 N.W.2d 417 . See, Prosser, Law of Torts, Sec. 116, p. 798 (4th Ed. 1971).”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.