Do I have grounds for a character defamation suit?
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Do I have grounds for a character defamation suit?
I am strongly considering filing a character defamation case against an
individual in my townhouse community who also happens to be the HOA
representative president. I have filed multiple reports for over 2 years regarding harassment and property damage caused by the neighborhood children that this individual has ignored largely because their own children are involved. I have attended several HOA meetings that I have on recording as meeting minutes of this individual dismissing all claims and hard evidence I bring to discussion documenting the many disturbances over the years. In the most recent meeting I attended, this individual finally revealed their intentions by falsely claiming that I said,
Asked on September 21, 2016 under Personal Injury, Maryland
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
In theory, you could bring a defamation suit: defamation is the making of a false statement of fact to other people which damages your reputation. On its face, claiming that you hate children if you don't would be defamation. The problem is, 1) if you have a record of complaints against children, it may be that a court (e.g. a jury) could conclude that your demonstrated behavior does show that you hate children, even if you claim that you don't; and 2) since opinions are not actionable, they may be able to convince a court that what was meant (even if stated clumsily) is that in their opinion, someone who complains as often you do must hate children. In short, your state of mind vis-a-vis children, while in one sense "factual" (you hate them or you don't) is, in another sense, subjective and difficult to quantify; thus, while technically, if you don't hate children this is a defamatory statement, proving that it's untrue may be difficult, and it may also be difficult to prove that their statement was not in actuality an opinion. This is not a hard-and-fast case of a clearly untrue fact, like alleging you committed theft when you did not. You are not at all guaranteed to win a case like this if you bring it.
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