43 So. 210 | Ala. | 1907
This action was brought against a corporation and its agent for slander. It is alleged in the complaint that the agent, “while, acting as agent for the defendant company and in line of his duty as such agent, falsely and maliciously charged the plaintiff with larceny, by speaking of and concerning her, in the presence of divers persons: ‘You are a thief. I know you.’ ” “The current of authority now is that corporations are. responsible civilly, the same as natural persons, for wrongs committed by their officers or agents iu the course of their employment, or which are authorized or subsequently ratified.”—Jordan v. A. G. S. R. R. Co., 74 Ala. 85, 49 Am. Rep. 800. Accordingly actions have been maintained against corporations for malicious prosecutions and libel, as well as other torts too numerous to be mentioned. The offense of slander is essentially single, differing in this respect from libel. In Cooley on Torts, p. 124, it is said: “Some wrongs are in their nature necessarily individual, because it is impossible that two or more should together commit them. The case of the oral utterance of defamatory words is an instance. This'is an individual act, because there can be no joint utterance. He alone can be liable who spoke the words; and, if two or more utter the,slander at the same time, still the utterance of each is individual, and must be the subject of a separate proceeding for redress.” See, also, 13 Ency. Pl. & Pr. p. 30.
The. liability of the principal for the torts of the agent, when not based upon a breach of duty arising out of contract, as in the case of .common carriers, is based upon principles of public policy. It is essential
Reversed and remanded.