Frinzi v. Hanson’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 44 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 67 later decisions — most recently September 2017 · most notably 80 Wis. 2d 257 - Converters Equipment Corp. v. Condes Corp. (1977), 103 Wis. 2d 465 - Fields Foundation, Ltd. v. Christensen (1981)
3 federal appellate · 44 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 · Bradley v. Cramer · Judevine v. Benzies-Montanye Fuel & Warehouse Co. · Leuch v. Berger
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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ ‘If the alleged communication is capable of a defamatory meaning, the demurrer must be overruled; and if the language is of such a character that it is capable of a nondefamatory meaning as well as a defamatory meaning, then a jury question is presented whether such communication was understood in fact in a defamatory sense by the persons to whom it was published. Martin v. Outboard Marine Corp., supra. If the communication cannot reasonably be considered defamatory or to be so understood, the demurrer must be sustained.’ Frinzi v. Hanson, 30 Wis.2d 271, 275-76 , 140 N.W.2d 259 (1966).””
12 later decisions quote this exact passage“communications are not made nondefamatory as a matter of law merely because they are phrased as opinions, suspicions or beliefs .... 'One may be libeled by implication and innuendo quite as easily as by direct affirmation.'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Dominic Frinzi, by stating that he is considering running as an independent has thrown away all pretense at being a Democrat,”
2 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.