Lesesne v. Willingham’s Empirical Analysis
1949
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 4 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently January 2000
6 federal appellate · 4 district · 3 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
Applies 47 U.S.C. § 35
Relies on O'Brien v. Western Union Telegraph Co. · Vermillion v. Woman's College of Due West · Bell v. Bank of Abbeville · Duncan v. the Record Publishing Co. · Peterson v. Western Union Telegraph Co.
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.
““It seems to be well settled in this State (South Carolina) that any words which falsely or maliciously change the commission of a crime, or which distinctly assume or imply one has committed a crime, or which raise a strong suspicion in the minds of hearers or readers, that one has committed a crime, or which plainly and falsely charge the contraction of a contagious disease, adultery or a want of chastity, or unfitness in the way of a profession or trade, or any written or printed words which tend to degrade a person, that is, to reduce his character or reputation in the estimation of his friends or acquaintances, or the public, or to disgrace him, or to render him odious, contemptible, or ridiculous, are actionable per se.” [Citations omitted].”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“That the appellant believed the charges to be true did not justify it publishing them in an improper and unjustified manner____Proof that they were published in such manner ... would constitute sufficient proof of malice, or malice in fact. It is not necessary that evidence must be offered of malignity or ill will, nor that those facts should be found. The time, place and other circumstances of the publication of defamatory charges, as well as the language of the publication itself, are admissible as evidence to show that the false charge was made with malice. It is generally held that the protection of a qualified privilege may be lost by the manner of its exercise, although belief of the truth of the charge exists. The privilege does not protect any unnecessary defamation. In order for a communication to be privileged, the person making it must be careful to go no further than his interests or his duties require. Where the person exceeds his privilege and the communication goes beyond what the occasion demands that he should publish, and is unnecessarily defamatory of plaintiff, he will not be protected. And the fact that a duty, a common interest, or a confidential relationship existed to a limited degree, is not a defense, even though he acted in good faith. [Citations omitted.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.