Court Opinion

ID: 9592237
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:11:54.836024+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:02.672231
License: Public Domain

DENECKE, J.,
specially concurring.
I specially concur again to question whether it is necessary to allege special damages when the defamatory matter is published in the form of libel, as distinguished from slander. In Reiman v. Pac. Devel. Society, 132 Or 82, 284 P 575 (1930), we held that if the matter was defamatory, and published in the form of libel, it was actionable without any proof of special *269damages. “* # * [I]f a complaint alleging oral defamation, does not aver special damage it can bring the plaintiff no relief unless it discloses a situation within one of the four above classifications; but that in an action of libel the complaint is sufficient if the alleged defamatory words bring the plaintiff into the public hatred, contempt or riducule.” 132 Or at 88
Hudson v. Pioneer Service Co., 218 Or 561, 346 P2d 123 (1959), and other decisions of this court cited therein may be to the contrary.① Those decisions use the phrase “libel per se”; special damages must be proved. I am not certain whether our more recent decisions intend to use “libel per se” to denominate a publication which is defamatory without proof of extrinsic facts or whether we have intended to merge libel and slander and allow recovery without proof of special damages only for certain classes of defamation, which, if in the form of slander, are uniformly termed “slander per se.”
3 Restatement, Torts § 569, adopts the rule we announced in Reiman v. Pac. Devel. Society, supra.
“One who falsely, and without a privilege to do so, publishes matter defamatory to another in such a manner as to make the publication a libel is liable to the other although no special harm or loss of reputation results therefrom.” 3 Restatement, supra.
The law as stated in Restatement was also stated to *270be the law by the two venerable writers on the subject, — Odgers, Libel and Slander (6th ed 1929), at 309, and Newell, Libel and Slander (4th ed 1924), at 834.
No reason for a departure from this rule of law has been expressed in our decisions. It appears that perhaps in this jurisdiction, if a departure was made, it was the result of a confusion of libel and slander. In Ruble v. Kirkwood, 125 Or 316, 266 P 252 (1928), the publication was by letter which, if defamatory, would, theref ore, be libel rather than slander. The court said: “* * # [I]t is settled here that an action for libel cannot be based on a charge of having committed a crime unless it is one involving moral turpitude: Clark v. Morrison, 80 Or. 240 (156 Pac. 429); Davis v. Sladden, 17 Or. 259 (21 Pac. 140).” 125 Or at 320. The cases cited are both slander cases. However, later in the opinion the court seems to be adopting the rule that libel is not actionable without proof of special damages if it is necessary to prove any extrinsic facts to show that the writing is clearly defamatory.
What the state of American law now is in this area appears to be the subject of present debate by the draftsmen of Restatement (Second), Torts. The view that the existing Restatement rule, § 569, is a correct statement of the present state of the law, and should continue to be the law because it is based upon sound policy, is presented by Eldredge, The Spurious Rule of Libel Per Quod, 79 Harv L Rev 733 (1966). The contrary view of the present state of the law is advanced in Prosser, Torts (3d ed 1964), 780-783.
The reason for this opinion is to state the problem and to urge that the problem be analyzed. Unless such a process occurs, the Oregon law on the subject will *271be the product of initial inadvertence made difficult to dislodge by precedents based upon the initial inadvertence.

 It may be that Hudson v. Pioneer Service Co., supra, can be construed as not involving defamation at all. The publication was a credit report that the defendant was delinquent on one account. This may be the tort which legal writers label “injurious falsehood.” In this tort the publication need not be personally defamatory, but it must be false and cause special damages which must be proved. 4 Restatement, Torts § 873; Prosser, Torts (3d ed 1964), 938-950.