A.

False Light
 False derogatory (pejorative ) statement about plaintiffs property or services or
ownership interest
 Trade libel (quality of goods and services)
 Slander of title( Ownership Interest)
 Restatement is BROADER Residual; harmful to plaintiffs not necessarily have to be
negative with regard to property or service
 Published w/ actual malice (knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard to truth)
 With intent to cause harm
 Causing pecuniary loss –substantial factor test direct consequences
 Defenses – Consent, truth, privileges qualified, absolute privileges
1. Relationships to other causes of Action
a. Cross Tort Application of Constitutional Principles
 Different from fraud 1. Someone other than the plaintiff relies 2. No justifiable
reliance on plaintiff instead 3rd party
b. Injurious Falsehood Versus Defamation
 Difference from Defamation 1. Instead of harm flowing through reputation it is
pecuniary loss flowing through wrongful statements 2. Defamation has presumed,
emotional damages 3. Actual malice always needed for injurious falsehood instead
of varying standards from negligence to strict liability for defamation
c. Injurious falsehood Versus Tortuous Interference
 Facts constituting injurious falsehood sometimes also amount to interference with
contract or prospective advantage
2. Elements of Liability
 623A Second Restatement: One who publishes a false statement harmful to the
interest of another is subject to liability for pecuniary loss resulting to the other if
a) He intends for the publication of the statement to result in harm to interest of
the other having a pecuniary, or recognizes or should recognize that it is likely
to do so, and
b) He knows that the statement is false or act in reckless disregard of its truth or
falsity
c) Residual
3. Culpability
 Actual Malice + intended or foreseeable to cause harm w/ intent recklessness or
negligence with respect with respect to the causation of harm may serve as the
basis for liability OR of and concerning the plaintiff
4. Proof of Damages
 Injurious falsehood compensates only pecuniary harm
5. Wandersee v. BP Products North America Inc.
 A corporation must accept responsibility for its agents
 No speculative damages
B. Slander of Title
C. Trade Libel
1. Agricultural Disparagement Statutes
2. Texas Beef Group v. Winfrey
 “Of and concerning”
D. Defenses Privileges, and other obstacles to Recovery
 A person is not liable for publication of a statement that is injurious to another if the
facts stated or implied are trued
1. Absolute Privileges

a. Judicial Proceedings
b. Consent
2. Qualified Privilege
 The privilege to exaggerate qualities 649 A competitor is conditionally privileged to
make an unduly favorable comparison of the quality of his own land, chattels, or
other things of rival competitor.
 Rival claimant privilege
a. The limited utility qualified privilege
b. Conditional privilege of a rival claimant
c. Conditional Privilege of Competitors