Smith V Stewart Case Summary
Case Review of Business Tort Krista Lee
Methodist University
In the appeal case of Smith v. Stewart, author Haywood Smith, Smith’s publisher, and secondary publishers contend that the court erred in denying a summary judgment for the claims of defamation, false light invasion of privacy, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress and public disclosure of private facts. These charges were brought against Smith by longtime friend, Vicki Stewart when Stewart was convinced that Smith wrote a book The Red Hat Club about fictional characters, one of which was a character based on Vicki Stewart that was said to be promiscuous and an alcoholic.
The first rule applied in this case was the rule of libel and slander, which states that the cause of defamation must include four elements: “1) a false and defamatory statement concerning the plaintiff; 2) an unprivileged communication to a third party; 3) fault by the defendant amounting at least to negligence; and 4) special harm of the actionability of the statement irrespective of special harm.” (822) Libel is the defamation of one’s character in written form, and slander is the …show more content…
When Vicki became an adult, she married a man and had two children. Her husband was later killed in a car accident and Vicki received a substantial amount of money in an insurance settlement. She later met and became engaged to a man by the name of Harold Stewart who was also engaged to another woman. She later married Harold. He stole her insurance money and transferred all of his assets to his mistress; subsequently they were divorced. In the divorce settlement, Vicki was awarded 750,000; however, she was unable to collect the award from Harold. When Vicki was in her fifties she became a flight
Methodist University
In the appeal case of Smith v. Stewart, author Haywood Smith, Smith’s publisher, and secondary publishers contend that the court erred in denying a summary judgment for the claims of defamation, false light invasion of privacy, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress and public disclosure of private facts. These charges were brought against Smith by longtime friend, Vicki Stewart when Stewart was convinced that Smith wrote a book The Red Hat Club about fictional characters, one of which was a character based on Vicki Stewart that was said to be promiscuous and an alcoholic.
The first rule applied in this case was the rule of libel and slander, which states that the cause of defamation must include four elements: “1) a false and defamatory statement concerning the plaintiff; 2) an unprivileged communication to a third party; 3) fault by the defendant amounting at least to negligence; and 4) special harm of the actionability of the statement irrespective of special harm.” (822) Libel is the defamation of one’s character in written form, and slander is the …show more content…
When Vicki became an adult, she married a man and had two children. Her husband was later killed in a car accident and Vicki received a substantial amount of money in an insurance settlement. She later met and became engaged to a man by the name of Harold Stewart who was also engaged to another woman. She later married Harold. He stole her insurance money and transferred all of his assets to his mistress; subsequently they were divorced. In the divorce settlement, Vicki was awarded 750,000; however, she was unable to collect the award from Harold. When Vicki was in her fifties she became a flight