Court Opinion

ID: 9771934
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:00:34.705006+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:39.765126
License: Public Domain

REAVLEY, Justice
(dissenting).
Dun & Bradstreet did enjoy a conditional privilege to publish to inquiring subscribers information on Truman O’Neil. Had it received a report that Truman O’Neil was bankrupt, because of the duty to those subscribers, it could have circulated the report — even, in the absence of actual malice, if the report were later proved to have been false.
But Dun & Bradstreet received no report on Truman O’Neil. Without any source at all, it published a wholly false statement. I would hold that there is no privilege to generate and publish false reports, even by innocent mistake. In the alternative, I would hold that the privilege is lost by the failure to exercise care in identification of the subject.