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slander

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tonyahawk7

Guest
California is my state, and my issue is that a fellow parent at my 10 year old child's school made the statement that my son was gay. She said this to 4-5 other students in his class, while they were standing in line. My son wasn't there but the children told him about it. Can I file any legal charges against this person and will it hold up in court???:confused:
 


I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
tonyahawk7 said:
California is my state, and my issue is that a fellow parent at my 10 year old child's school made the statement that my son was gay. She said this to 4-5 other students in his class, while they were standing in line. My son wasn't there but the children told him about it. Can I file any legal charges against this person and will it hold up in court???:confused:

My response:

Under California law, you don't, or rather I should say, your son doesn't have a Cause of Action.

Slander is basically an oral libel - - i.e., a false unprivileged oral statement to a third party (a "publication") which by its "natural consequence" causes actual damage (unless the statement is slander per se, below). [Ca Civil § 46]

Your son can't prove "actual" damages; e.g., a monetary loss.


However, with "Slander per se", actual damages need not be proven if the statement is presumptively injurious. An utterance constitutes slander per se if it:

• Charges any person with crime involving moral turpitude, or having committed or been punished for a crime;

• Tends to injure the person with respect to his or her profession, business, or office; or

• Imputes to the person impotence, promiscuity, or the existence of an infectious, contagious or loathsome disease. [Ca Civil § 46]


Your son doesn't fall within the ambit of the Statute because being, or not being gay does not involve moral turpitude, a crime, he doesn't have a profession, business or office, and being gay is not infectious, and is not a disease.

However, his and your feelings have been hurt and, perhaps, a sincere apology is in order.

Hurt feelings does not constitute a legal cause of action.

IAAL
 

Jeter

Member
Jeez, you live in California. The 4-5 other students that she told are probably gay, too, so what's the harm?:eek:
 

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