Hunt v. Gerlemann’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 7 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The accusation need not be direct, but if not, it must be the only inference that could be reasonably drawn from the lan guage used.... The words, although not required to be uttered with precision, must be naturally and presumably understood by third parties to constitute an allegation [imputing to the plaintiff one of the acts or conditions constituting slander per se].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Balderree v. Beeman

2. “In determining whether language is libelous per se, it must be viewed stripped of any pleaded innuendo. The meaning of the phrase “per se” is “taken alone, in itself, by itself.” Words which are libelous per se do not need an innuendo, and, conversely, words which need an innuendo are not libelous per se.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Balderree v. Beeman