8 Blackf. 155 | Ind. | 1846
This was an action' for a libel by George Coombs against Rose. The declaration contains an averment that an action, wherein the defendant, Rose, and one Crouch were the plaintiffs, and one Isaac Coombs was the defendant, had been tried before a justice of the peace; that the plaintiff had been a witness for the defendant on the trial, and had given testimony as to a material point. The declaration also alleges that, in reference to that trial and the testimony given therein by the plaintiff, the defendant composed and published the following libel: “Charge 4th. Refusing to correct George Coombs in his statement as a witness before Esq. Brown, when I believe he, Isaac Coombs, knew his, George’s, statement was not true.” This language is shown, by the proper innuendoes, to have been applied by the defendant to the plaintiff in reference to the testimony given by him on the trial above mentioned.
The defendant pleaded the general issue and a special plea. The latter is, that the defendant and Isaac Coombs were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in, &c., and that the defendant, according to the rules of the church, preferred charges against Isaac Coombs, as a member, “ for the purpose — and in good faith — of having the same investigated according to the rules of the church, deeming the same was necessary to sustain the character of the church;” and that the supposed libel was one of the charges so made against Isaac Coombs; wherefore the defendant “did not maliciously publish the same.”
There was a general demurrer to the special plea, and joinder in demurrer.
The Court, deeming the'declaration to be bad, rendered a judgment'against the plaintiff.
We think the Court was mistaken in supposing the declaration to be insufficient. The publication complained of, as applied to the testimony of the plaintiff in the trial of a cause, indirectly charges him with false swearing. This is not only