stating that “[f]or the absolute immunity of the privilege to apply, two requirements must be satisfied: (1) the statement must have been made in the course of or preliminary to a judicial proceeding; and (2) the statement must be related in some way to the underlying proceeding”
How later courts described this case
- stating that “[f]or the absolute immunity of the privilege to apply, two requirements must be satisfied: (1) the statement must have been made in the course of or preliminary to a judicial proceeding; and (2) the statement must be related in some way to the underlying proceeding”
- holding that “an attorney is protected by an absolute privilege to publish false and defamatory matter of another during the course of or preliminary to a judicial proceeding, provided the statements bear some relation to the proceeding.”
- attorney’s statement that his adversary was incompetent in the English language (“You better learn your English, go to elementary school”
- “[f]or the absolute immunity of the privilege to apply, two requirements must be satisfied: (1) the statement must have been made in the course of or preliminary to a judicial proceeding; and (2) the statement must be related in some way to the underlying proceeding”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
PRYOR, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
*607 Q. And what did Mr. Horton do then?
*625 The majority opinion cogently states a view for affirming the trial court ruling. Critical to our decision is the determination whether the questioned statements were made in the course of a judicial proceeding or even a conference preliminary to a proceeding. Recognizing, as does the majority, that it is difficult to draw a boundary for this absolute privilege, I am unable to distinguish this case from a similar scenario which occurs in the hallway or just outside of the courthouse. I agree that the relevance of the statements are a question of law. However, I think in this case, in particular, it is a question of fact whether there was a conference or even a discussion between the lawyers or whether this was a circumstance where one attorney was simply unilaterally abusing the other. As liberally as the privilege is to be construed, I question if the latter conduct should be protected.
I would remand for resolution of the factual question which I have noted.