66 So. 385 | La. | 1914
The plaintiff has appealed from a judgment of the district court rejecting his demand for damages for alleged humiliation and alleged injury to Ms reputation. He avers that, while he was peacefully attending a performance in the defendant’s theater, the superintendent unjustly accused him of being drunk and-of using loud and boisterous language, and without just cause had him ejected from the theater by a police officer.
The plaintiff and his witnesses say that the police officer took hold of him and escorted him out of the theater, accusing him of being drunk. The defendant’s witnesses deny all of this. The police officer says that, when he arrived in the foyer, the plaintiff was talking very loudly, disturbing the audience, and, addressing the officer and referring to the superintendent, said: “This man is getting onto me and saying I am making a noise, and I am not.” The officer told him to shut up or leave the theater. The officer says that the plaintiff persisted in his loud talk while he (the officer) tried to quiet him, and that the plaintiff walked out of the theater ahead of the officer.
The superintendent and the police officer deny that either of them accused the plaintiff of being drunk, and their testimony is corroborated by that of other witnesses who were in a position to hear the accusation if it was made.
There is considerable doubt that the plaintiff was guilty of the original disturbance, but the superintendent, believing that the plaintiff was the guilty party, was acting within the proper performance of his duty when he requested him to be quiet. The plaintiff or his companion did not then tell the superintendent that he was mistaken, or that some one in front of them had made the noise. There was no one else in that section of the parquet who could have seen or heard the superintendent address the plaintiff in his seat except two ladies, who were two rows behind the plaintiff. Testifying in his behalf, they say they thought nothing of that incident, and that their attention was not distracted from the performance until the plaintiff arose and followed the superintendent back to the foyer. Our conclusion is that it was the plaintiff’s going back into the foyer and provoking the disturbance with the superintendent that brought on whatever humiliation he suffered.
The judgment appealed from is affirmed at the cost of the appellant.