S.D. Codified Laws § 20-11-5

Privileged communications--Malice not inferred from publication

Applied in 34 court decisions — leading case Bego v. Gordon (1987)

Most recently applied in Rowe v. Rowe (July 2025)

Source: CivC 1877, § 31; CL 1887, § 2530; RCivC 1903, § 31; RC 1919, § 99; SDC 1939, § 47.0503.

How often courts cite this section

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.

A privileged communication is one made:

(1) In the proper discharge of an official duty;

(2) In any legislative or judicial proceeding, or in any other official proceeding authorized by law;

(3) In a communication, without malice, to a person interested therein, by one who is also interested, or 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 who is requested by the person interested to give the information;

(4) By a fair and true report, without malice, of a judicial, legislative, or other public official proceeding or of anything said in the course thereof.

In the cases provided for in subdivisions (3) and (4) of this section, malice is not inferred from the communication or publication.

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