Gunsul v. Ray’s Empirical Analysis
1935
Citation profile
16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently January 1998
16 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 Abbey v. Green · 17 Cal. App. 705 - Conn v. City Council · Cudihee v. Phelps
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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“" Section 47 of the Civil Code defines five classes of publications which are declared to be privileged. The claim of privilege in the instant case is made under subdivision 3 of that section, which defines the privilege thereby protected as one made ‘in a communication, without malice, to a person interested therein, (1) by one who is also interested, or (2) by one who stands in such relation to the person interested as to afford a reasonable ground for supposing the motive for the communication innocent, or (3) who is requested by the person interested to give the information.’ When one offers himself for public office, or occupies a position of public trust, he is held to have proffered himself for public investigation, and his conduct is open to public criticism, as it is for the interest of society that his acts may be freely published with fitting comments or strictures. This right, of course, does not warrant aspersive attacks upon the motive or character of the officer. “A newspaper, or other publication, or private citizen, within proper limit, may express opinions and indulge in criticism upon the character or qualifications of public officers and candidates for public office. " But, in order that the privilege accorded by subdivision 3 of section 47 of the Civil Code, be available, it must appear that the publication was made without malice. If it be made to appear that the defendant acted with malicious intent, in uttering the libel, it cannot successfully invoke ”
1 later decision 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.