LIBEL AND SLANDER - IMPLIED REPRESENTATION THAT PLAINTIFF CONSENTED TO WRITE HER LOVE STORY AS LIBEL PER SE

Plaintiff brought an action for libel against defendant for publishing in its magazine a story, which it represented as being written by plaintiff, purporting to relate indiscreet intimacies between plaintiff and a certain man. Defendant admitted the false representation of authorship, but requested a directed verdict after submitting in evidence testimony given by plaintiff in a prior law suit, in which she was said to have admitted intimacies fully as capable of bringing her into disrepute as were those published by defendant. On refusal by the court to direct a verdict, defendant excepted and appealed on the ground that the above evidence constituted a defense of truth to the charge. Held, that irrespective of the authenticity of the evidence, the court below did not err because defendant\u27s liability could be based solely on the false imputation to plaintiff of a willingness to publish to the world a sensational account of her love affair. Karjavainean v. McFadden Publications Inc., (Mass. 1940) 26 N. E. (2d) 538