Cox v. Hatch’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 8 district · 30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 45 later decisions — most recently August 2025 · most notably Brehany v. Nordstrom, Inc. (1991), 273 Ill. App. 3d 742 - Dwyer v. American Express Co. (1995)
4 federal appellate · 8 district · 30 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 Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. · St. Amant v. Thompson · Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts
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 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Whether the publication of an alleged defamatory statement ... is capable of conveying a defamatory message is initially a question of law. The tort of defamation protects only reputation. A publication is not defamatory simply because it is nettlesome or embarrassing to a plaintiff, or even because it makes a false statement about the plaintiff. Thus, an embarrassing, even though false, statement that does not damage one’s reputation is not actionable as libel or slander. If no defamatory meaning can reasonably be inferred by reasonable persons from the communication, the action must be dismissed for failure to state a claim. Only if a court first determines that a publication might be considered defamatory by a reasonable person is there a fact issue for the trier of fact.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“(1) One who invades the right of privacy of another is subject to liability for the resulting harm to the interests of the other. (2) The right of privacy is invaded by: (a) unreasonable intrusion upon the seclusion of another, as stated in § 652B; or (b) appropriation of the other’s name or likeness, as stated in § 652C; or (c) unreasonable publicity given to the other’s private life, as stated in § 652D; or (d) publicity that unreasonably places the other in a false light before the public, as stated in § 652E.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[T]he term “actual malice,” as used in New York Times and its progeny, has often been confused with the common law terms “malice” and “actual malice,” which denote personal hostility or ill will. Although the common law term and the New York Times term use the same words, they denote different legal concepts.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.