Brown v. Kitterman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 1 district · 28 state decisions

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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[F]alse words which tend to prejudice the person spoken of in his business, profession, office, occupation, or employment, are actionable without proof of special damages if they affect him in such calling in a manner that may, as a necessary consequence, or does, as a natural consequence, prevent him from deriving therefrom that pecuniary reward which, probably he might have obtained. . [T]o be actionable per se that words must be defamatory of the plaintiff in such calling in that they impute fraud, want of integrity or misconduct in the line of his calling.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Balderree v. Beeman · Arthur v. Jablonow

2. “the malicious defamation of a person made public by any printing [or] writing ... tending to expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or to deprive him of the benefits of public confidence and social intercourse”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 609 F. Supp. 72 - Quartana v. Utterback · Quartana v. Utterback

3. “`is to speak evil of one maliciously, to dishonor, to render infamous.'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Standard Oil, Division of Amoco Oil Co. · 503 F. Supp. 2d 1178 - Hess v. Sanofi-Synthelabo Inc.