Now what does "recklessly" mean. It does not
mean actual personal indifference to the truth of the statement.
It means only that the data for the statement were so far
insufficient that a prudent man could not have made it without
leading to the inference that he was indifferent. That is to say,
repeating an analysis which has been gone through with before, it
means that the law, applying a general objective standard,
determines that, if a man makes his statement on those data, he
is liable, whatever was the state of his mind, and although he
individually may have been perfectly free from wickedness in
making it.
Hence similar reasoning to that which has been applied already to
intent may be applied to knowledge of falsity. Actual knowledge
may often be easier to prove than that the evidence was
insufficient to warrant the statement, and when proved it
contains the lesser element. But as soon as the lesser element is
shown to be enough, it is shown that the law is ready to apply an
external or objective standard here also.
Courts of equity have laid down the doctrine in terms which are
so wholly irrespective of the actual moral condition of the
defendant as to go to an opposite extreme. It is said that "when
a representation in a matter of business is made by one man to
another calculated to induce him to adapt his conduct to it, it
is perfectly immaterial whether the representation is made
knowing it to be untrue, or whether it is made believing it to be
true, if, in fact, it was untrue.
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