TORTS - LIBEL - PHOTOGRAPHS - RIGHT OF PRIVACY

Authors

Abstract

Defendant in its newspaper published a photograph of plaintiff and her husband's chauffeur standing in front of an airplane at an airport. The picture was captioned "Principals in Local Divorce Scandal," and the accompanying news story stated that plaintiff had sued her husband for divorce, the husband had filed a cross bill, and he had sued the chauffeur for alienation of affections. Plaintiff's declaration alleged that the picture had been cut from a larger one in which her husband had appeared, that the airplane was her husband's, and that the picture was believed to have been taken under a contract with the husband. The declaration was in six counts, four sounding in libel, and two setting up invasion of plaintiff's right of privacy. Defendant demurred. Held, demurrers to counts in libel should be overruled, and those to counts alleging invasion of the right of privacy should be sustained, for, regardless of the existence of the right of privacy, plaintiff here had waived it by posing for the picture in a public place and she had no property in the photograph. Thayer v. Worcester Post Co., (Mass. 1933) 187 N. E. 292.

Recommended Citation

TORTS - LIBEL - PHOTOGRAPHS - RIGHT OF PRIVACY, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 1172 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss8/18