§ 14-7 Defamation - Defamation Per Se or Defamation Per Quod

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 14-7 Defamation - Defamation Per Se or Defamation Per Quod

The defamatory meaning of a message or statement may be obvious on the face of the statement, in which case the statement is defamatory per se. A statement is defamatory per se, or on its face, if its defamatory meaning is apparent from the language itself. It must be susceptible of only one meaning, that being a defamatory one. If an innocent construction can fairly be made of the statement, it cannot be defamatory per se. An example of defamation per se is "A is a thief."

Conversely, if it is necessary to refer to facts or circumstances beyond the language itself in order to make the defamatory meaning of the statement clear, it is defamatory per quod. In other words, if the defamatory meaning is not clear...