Appellate Court of Illinois

Dismissal of plaintiff's claim of per se defamation against defendants for allegedly defamatory statements made in an e-mail sent to a newspaper's employees is affirmed where: 1) the reference to damage "to our finances" doe snot have a precise core of meaning for which a consensus of understanding exists; 2) the statement referring to finances is too broad, conclusory, and vague to be objectively verifiable; and 3) the defamatory statement's social or literary context does not make it a factual assertion.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/19/2008
• Published 06/06/2008

Judges

• Justice WOLFSON delivered the opinion of the court:

Court

• Appellate Court of Illinois

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Martin B. Carroll, Fox, Hefter, Swibel, Levin & Carroll, LLP, Chicago, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Steven L. Hamann, James V. Garvey, and Frederic T. Knape, Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz, P.C., Chicago, for Appellees.