I wrote last November about a libel verdict in Cody v. Dirir, a lawsuit between two college students. To quickly excerpt the facts, from the court's opinion:
On October 12, 2022 [likely should say 2019 -EV], the plaintiff and the defendant were students at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut (University). They did not know each other until October 12, 2022 [likely should say 2019 -EV], when the defendant attended a party at a home of a fraternity that the plaintiff was a member of and where he resided. During the party, the defendant believed that she was called a nigger (N-word) by another member of the fraternity, Frank V., a black male. When the defendant told the plaintiff, a white male, that Frank called her the N-word, the plaintiff tried to convince her that Frank would never say that and if he did, he did not intend it in a negative way as he used the N-word with an "a" at the end of the word and not with an "er" at the end of the word. Frank used the N-word in the defendant's presence, and she believed the word was directed to her.
The defendant was upset by this exchange at the party, and after the defendant left the party, she reported this encounter to her cousin, … Ellie …. With the defendant's assistance of providing a picture of the plaintiff and Frank, Ellie posted on her Twitter page the picture of Frank and the plaintiff with the following statement: "These two called my little cousin a nigga and continued to belittle her infront of their white friends at a UConn frat party. If anyone knows their names, please let me know. And tell them keep that energy." The statement with the picture (also referred to as "post" or "tweet") was seen initially by approximately 700 to 1000 people who are the cousin's Twitter followers. Those followers then forwarded the post/tweet to their Twitter followers, resulting in approximately 5000 or more people viewing the post.
The statement, plaintiff argued, was false, badly damaged his reputation, and distressed him. (For more details, see the longer excerpt here.) And the judge ultimately agreed, concluding (to oversimplify) that the statement was false and highly distressing. Because of this, the judge awarded $10K in compensatory damages to plaintiff, and left open the possibility of punitive damages. In May 2024, the judge indeed awarded $26K in punitive damages, reflecting 3/4 of the plaintiff's attorney fees (since plaintiff had prevailed on the most significant part of his claims but not all his claims).
