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S.D. Codified Laws § 20-11-4

Slander defined

Applied in 19 court decisions — leading case Groseth International, Inc. v. Tenneco, Inc. (1987)

Most recently applied in Gantvoort v. Ranschau (April 2022)

Source: CivC 1877, § 30; CL 1887, § 2529; RCivC 1903, § 30; RC 1919, § 98; SDC 1939, § 47.0502.

How often courts cite this section

19721980199020002010202220
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Slander is a false and unprivileged publication, other than libel, which:

(1) Charges any person with crime, or with having been indicted, convicted, or punished for crime;

(2) Imputes to him the present existence of an infectious, contagious, or loathsome disease;

(3) Tends directly to injure him in respect to his office, profession, trade, or business, either by imputing to him general disqualification in those respects which the office or other occupation peculiarly requires, or by imputing something with reference to his office, profession, trade, or business that has a natural tendency to lessen its profit;

(4) Imputes to him impotence or want of chastity; or

(5) By natural consequence, causes actual damage.

Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.