Opinion ID: 1798623
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Heading: The Pre-Gertz Standard

Text: In defamation actions, the traditional rule concerning the publication of matters either libelous or actionable per se has been that the law infers some damage. Berryman, Sutherland's A Treatise on Damages, § 10 at 37 (4th ed. 1916). As for verbal accusations that were considered actionable per se, the widely accepted notion was: Certain vocal utterances are actionable per se; an action will lie for them without an allegation or proof of actual damage because it is legally presumed that they cause injury as a natural and immediate consequence. Other utterances of a defamatory tendency are not so obviously injurious that injury is presumed.... [Emphasis added.] Id. § 1024 at 4501. This Court adopted this conclusion early, stating that injury is presumed to ensue [from false and nonprivileged publication] as the direct product of the publication, and affords ground for the allowance of at least nominal damages. Advertiser Company v. Jones, 169 Ala. 196, 205, 53 So. 759 (1910). We have frequently reiterated the doctrine of presumed damages in defamation cases that were actionable per se. Starks v. Comer, 190 Ala. 245, 254, 67 So. 440 (1914); Comer v. Advertiser Co., 201 Ala. 159, 160, 77 So. 685 (1918); Johnson Publishing Co. v. Davis, 271 Ala. 474, 487, 124 So.2d 441 (1960); General Electric Credit Corp. v. Alford & Assoc., 374 So.2d 1316, 1321 (Ala. 1979) [1] . A distinction was made between per se actions, where damages were presumed, and per quod actions, where special damages must be proved, in Marion v. Davis, 217 Ala. 16, 114 So. 357 (1927). The Court elaborated: In cases of libel, if the language used exposes the plaintiff to public ridicule or contempt, though it does not embody an accusation of crime, the law presumes damage to the reputation, and pronounces it actionable per se. While to constitute slander actionable per se, there must be an imputation of an indictable offense involving infamy or moral turpitude. Ex parte West (Re: Peinhardt v. West) supra [217 Ala. 14, 115 So. 88]; Rice v. Simmons, supra [2 Har. (Del.) 417]; 36 C.J. 1152, § 19; 17 R.C.L. pp. 263, 264, §§ 3 and 4. This distinction, however, does not deny the right to maintain an action for slander founded on oral malicious defamation subjecting the plaintiff to disgrace, ridicule, odium, or contempt, though it falls short of imputing the commission of such crime or misdemeanor. In such case the law pronounces the words actionable per quod only, and the plaintiff must allege and prove special damages as an element of the cause of action. 17 R.C.L. p. 264, § 4. 217 Ala. at 18, 114 So. 357. Thus, if a person was slandered by another and the statements constituted slander per se, that person was entitled by law to collect at least nominal damages without proof of damage to reputation.