Slander and the Adulterer

[irishhope81]

my question is...

lets say someone knew that a woman had committed adultery. this person told the husband what he knew, despite not having any physical evidence of the adulterous act. the husband then told his wife what this person had said and the wife has threatened to file suit against that person for slander/defamation. is this possible? assume that the person also told another party in addition to the husband. And the communication was via text messaging and/or email. is there a case for slander here?

 

[cbg]

It doesn't matter if it's text messaging, email, snail mail, fax, or smoke signals. If what was said is true, then it's not slander.

 

[irishhope81]

even if it cannot be proven to be true? what if the husband and wife file for divorce due to these statements? can the wife file suit against the person who told the husband what had happened?

 

[cbg]

It is only slander if it is false, and the speaker KNOWS it is false. Slander is not determined by whether there are negative results, but on whether the information is true (not slander), opinion (not slander), an error, (not slander) or false and known to be false by the speaker (slander).