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Civil Conspiracy Essay

Decent Essays

I. Questions Presented

1. What elements are required for a defendant to have engaged in a civil conspiracy to defame a plaintiff.

2. What procedures must a plaintiff satisfy in order to bring an action on behalf of an LLC.

II. Brief Answers

1. To conspire to defame a plaintiff, two or more persons must agree to intentionally make false representations about another that causes the other harm.

2.

III. Discussion

A. Overview of Civil Conspiracy

You have inquired about the elements of and what steps are necessary in order for an individual to engage in a civil conspiracy. In order to make a prima facie claim for civil conspiracy, the plaintiff must satisfy the following elements:

1) A confederation of two or more persons by agreement or understanding;

2) Some unlawful or tortious act done in …show more content…

Lacey, 262 Md. 94, 97-98 (1971). Moreover, as Van Royen demonstrates, that analysis has partially been borrowed from the criminal realm in order to determine whether there was an agreement. The distinction between these two analyses is that in a criminal conspiracy, the confederacy is the crime, that is, it is the ends of the analysis. In a civil conspiracy, however, the confederacy is merely a means to the end of determining the greater question of whether the confederacy is a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s damages. Accordingly, while the elements articulated in Lloyd, 397 Md. at 154, set forth a helpful framework within which to analyze a civil conspiracy, the overarching consideration is whether one who is not the principal actor in an event causing harm can nevertheless be said to be a proximate cause of the harm solely by means of their agreement. With these considerations in mind, the following is an assessment of the elements set forth in

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