14-02 Personal Rights - North Dakota Statutes

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CHAPTER 14-02PERSONAL RIGHTS14-02-01.General personal rights.Every person, subject to the qualifications andrestrictions provided by law, has the right of protection from bodily restraint or harm, from
personal insult, from defamation, and from injury to the person's personal relations.14-02-02. Defamation classified. Defamation is effected by:1.Libel; or2.Slander.14-02-03. Civil libel defined. Libel is a false and unprivileged publication by writing,printing, picture, effigy, or other fixed representation to the eye, which exposes any person to
hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy, or which causes the person to be shunned or avoided, or
which has a tendency to injure the person in the person's occupation.14-02-04. Civil slander defined. Slander is a false and unprivileged publication otherthan libel, which:1.Charges any person with crime, or with having been indicted, convicted, or punished
for crime;2.Imputes to the person the present existence of an infectious, contagious, or
loathsome disease;3.Tends directly to injure the person in respect to the person's office, profession, trade,
or business, either by imputing to the person general disqualifications in those
respects which the office or other occupation peculiarly requires, or by imputing
something with reference to the person's office, profession, trade, or business that
has a natural tendency to lessen its profits;4.Imputes to the person impotence or want of chastity; or5.By natural consequence causes actual damage.14-02-05. Privileged communications. A privileged communication is one made:1.In the proper discharge of an official duty;2.In any legislative or judicial proceeding or in any other proceeding authorized by law;3.In a communication, without malice, to a person interested therein by one who also
is interested, or by one who stands in such relation to the person interested as to
afford a reasonable ground for supposing the motive for the communication
innocent, or who is requested by the person interested to give the information; and4.By a fair and true report, without malice, of a judicial, legislative, or other public
official proceeding, or of anything said in the course thereof.In the cases provided for in subsections 3 and 4, malice is not inferred from the communication
or publication.14-02-06. Offenses against personal relation. All civil claims for relief for breach ofpromise to marry, alienation of affection, criminal conversation, and seduction are abolished. A
claim for relief brought before July 1, 1983, under this section, is valid until final judgment is
rendered.Page No. 114-02-07. Force to protect. Any necessary force may be used to protect from wrongfulinjury the person or property of one's self, or of a wife, husband, child, parent, or other relative, or
member of one's family, or of a ward, servant, master, or guest.14-02-08.Libel suits against newspapers - Retraction.Repealed by S.L. 1995,ch. 332,