Peck v. Tribune Co.
United States Supreme Court
214 U.S. 185 (1909)
The Tribune Co. (defendant) published a whiskey advertisement featuring a portrait of Peck (plaintiff) falsely labeled as an endorsement from a nurse named "Mrs. A. Schuman," claiming she constantly used the whiskey and gave it to her patients; Peck, who was neither a nurse nor a drinker of spirituous liquors, sued for libel, but the trial court refused to let her testify and directed a verdict for the Tribune, a ruling an intermediate appellate court affirmed before Peck sought Supreme Court review.
Whether a published statement falsely attributing an endorsement of alcohol use to a person, through use of her portrait and misattributed name, is defamatory even if the underlying conduct described is not universally regarded as wrong.