Court Opinion

ID: 9592240
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:11:54.85015+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:05.326647
License: Public Domain

LUSK, J.,
concurring.
Apparently, the majority of the American courts follow the •so-called per quod rule, which is that if a publication is not defamatory on its face, but only in the light of extrinsic facts, it is not actionable unless the plaintiff is able to prove special damages. In several of our decisions this has been stated to be the law of Oregon and for many years has been so understood by the profession. But, with the possible exception of Hudson v. Pioneer Service Co., 218 Or 561, 346 P2d 123, there is no case in which this court has been called upon to apply that rule to a publication not defamatory on its face.
The per quod rule seems to have been taken for granted in the cases that have come to this court, both by counsel and the court. Thus in the leading case of Peck v. Coos Bay Times Pub. Co. et al, 122 Or 408, 259 P 307, counsel for both parties appear to have agreed that this was the Oregon rule and, so far as I know, the relative merits of the per quod and the common law rule have never been debated here.
The court has now carefully considered the decisions of the courts and the writings of learned authors upon the subject and, I think, is fully warranted in its conclusion that the per quod rule is an erroneous introduction into the law of libel of a rule peculiar to slander, is illogical, and is more likely than not to lead to denials of justice. The difficulty in many cases of libel of proving special damages is obvious and the argument that there is less danger of harm from a writing which requires proof of extrinsic facts to show its defamatory character than from a *281writing defamatory on its face, is to my mind not convincing.
In the instant case I think that the jury could find from the manner in which the defendant chose to publish the fact of plaintiff’s indebtedness to him that this was not a bare statement that the plaintiff owed money, but carried with it the implication that he was unworthy of credit. This is defamation.