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As there is no general Federal common law of torts, nor
controlling definitions in the tax code, we must look to State
law to analyze the nature of the claim litigated. Burnet v.
Harmel, 287 U.S. 103, 110 (1932) (State law creates legal
interests; Federal law determines when and how to tax).
Petitioner's personal injury suit was for libel, a
defamation action. All defamatory statements (whether libel or
slander) attack a person's good name.14 See MacFadden
Publications, Inc. v. Wilson, 121 S.W.2d 430 (Tex. Civ. App.
1938). Whether the defamatory attack is on the personal
reputation or the professional reputation of the individual, the
defamation is personal in nature. Gulf At. Life Ins. Co. v.
Hurlbut, 696 S.W.2d 83, 96-97 (Tex. App. 1985) (the action of
defamation is to protect the personal reputation of the injured
party, whereas the action for injurious falsehood or business
disparagement is to protect the economic interests of the injured
party against pecuniary loss), revd. and remanded on other
14 Texas law provides the following:
A libel is a defamation expressed in written
or other graphic form that tends to blacken the
memory of the dead or that tends to injure a
living person's reputation and thereby expose the
person to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or
financial injury or to impeach any person's
honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation or to
publish the natural defects of anyone and thereby
expose the person to public hatred, ridicule, or
financial injury. [Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code
Ann. sec. 73.001 (West 1997).]
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