Yeagle v. Collegiate Times

In Yeagle v. Collegiate Times, 255 Va. 293, 497 S.E. 2d 136 (Va. 1998), the court said: "While 'every fair inference' in a pleading may be used to determine whether the words complained of are capable of a meaning ascribed by innuendo, inferences cannot extend the statements, by innuendo, beyond what would be the ordinary and common acceptance of the statement." 497 S.E.2d at 138 Applying the "ordinary and common acceptance of the statement" concept to an article which included the words "Director of Butt Licking" under the name of a college official, and considering the appellation in the context of the whole article, the Supreme Court of Virginia concluded that the words were not capable of defamatory meaning. Id.