215 F. 99 | 7th Cir. | 1914
To plaintiff in error’s declaration for libel a demurrer for want of facts was sustained, plaintiff declined to amend, and judgment for defendant was entered.
Many objections are urged by defendant; but, if the declaration is deficient in any material respect, the judgment must be affirmed.
*100 “The gravamen of an action for libel is not injury to the plaintiff’s feelings, but damage to his reputation in the eyes of others. * * * It is not enough, to constitute libel, that the plaintiff knew that he was the subject of the article, or that the defendants knew of whom they were writing; it must appear upon the face of the declaration that persons other than these must have reasonably understood that the article was written of and concerning the plaintiff, and that the so-called libelous expressions related-to him.”
See, also, Robinson v. Drummond, 24 Ala. 174; De Witt v. Wright, 57 Cal. 576; Patterson v. Edwards, 7 Ill. (2 Gilman) 720; McLaughlin v. Fisher, 136 Ill. 111, 24 N. E. 60; McCallum v. Lambie, 145 Mass. 234, 13 N. E. 899; Carlson v. Minnesota Tribune Co., 47 Minn. 337, 50 N. W. 229; Miller v. Maxwell, 16 Wend. (N. Y.) 9; Sasser v. Rouse, 35 N. C. 145; Dunlap v. Sundberg, 55 Wash. 609, 104 Pac. 830, 133 Am. St. Rep. 1050.
As plaintiff refused to plead the necessary additional facts, we must believe that (but for the filing of her present declaration) her reputation with the world at large remained as good as if the letter had been written in a code unknown to any one except defendant and herself.
The judgment is affirmed.