The Georgia Court of Appeals revived a defamation suit one doctor filed against another, ruling a letter circulated by the defendant indicating her former colleague no longer practiced medicine constituted libel per se.

The judges ruled the obvious meaning of the wording in question indicated Dr. Randy Smith lost his license or no longer had the capacity to do his job. As such, the libel suit should not have been dismissed on summary judgment.

As detailed in the June 19 opinion written by Judge Yvette Miller with concurrence of Judges Sara Doyle and Clyde Reese, Smith, an anti-aging practitioner, went into business with a national aging management company, Cenegenics.