UNFAIR COMPETITION - TRUTHFUL DISPARAGEMENT OF A TRADER'S REPUTATION

Authors

W. Wallace Kent, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Plaintiff sued for treble damages under the Anti-Trust Act, alleging that the defendants had conspired and combined to drive him out of the securities business. Plaintiff alleged that to accomplish their purpose the defendants published statements as to plaintiff's "criminal record." The facts are not clear, but it appears from the report that the crimes in question were committed twenty years previously, during plaintiff's youth. The trial court instructed the jury that "if that information was true [as to plaintiff's criminal record], the Better Business Bureau, regardless of its purpose in disseminating the information, would not be liable, is not liable, because no person or firm can be liable for telling or publishing the truth." Held, that the instruction was substantially correct; that even though the instruction did not apply to this action the defendants would not be liable because there was not sufficient evidence to support the charge of illegality in the combination; that the avowed purpose of the defendants, to rid the securities business of unscrupulous persons, was not only lawful but commendable; that the only question was the illegality of the combination. McCann v. New York Stock Exchange, (C. C. A. 2d, 1939) 107 F. (2d) 908, certiorari denied (U.S. 1940) 60 S. Ct. 807.

Recommended Citation

W. W. Kent, UNFAIR COMPETITION - TRUTHFUL DISPARAGEMENT OF A TRADER'S REPUTATION, 38 Mich. L. Rev. 1367 (1940).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol38/iss8/36