A trial judge dismissed the suit, finding the allegations could not support a “group defamation” finding. Group defamation suits are a bit tricky: You’re not alleging that someone said you, personally, committed a heinous act, but that a “small” (that’s the legal requirement) group of people committed the heinous act — which group includes you, so you may be subject to a diminished reputation due to the smearing of the group. If the group is smeared, then you, as a member of the group, are likely to have a damaged reputation.
But it’s a balancing act of deciding how “small” the group has to be in order to say that smearing that group smears an individual (unnamed) member of it.
The trial court judge dismissed the fraternity student’s individualdefamation claims, and also their “small group” defamation claims.
An appeals court has reversed that ruling and re-instated the small group defamation suit, as well as two (of the three) individual defamation suits: So the suit will now proceed, and, if the past is prologue, the rest of the media will duly ignore.
AAN Staff
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