41 Minn. 7 | Minn. | 1889
We have examined all of appellant’s 19 assignments of error, and find them either unsupported by the record or so devoid of merit that, in our opinion, only one of them requires any special consideration. The publication constituting the alleged libel was clearly defamatory on its face, without ambiguity, and incapable of an innocent meaning; and the case was free from any evidence tending to change the natural meaning of the words. On the contrary, the defendant, who justified by alleging the truth of the publication, in his answer repeated and amplified the charges against the plaintiff, saying in substance that he meant just what he said, and that he published the article- to caution the public against defendant as a dishonest swindler, and “an irresponsible, unadulterated, first-class humbug and fraud.” The court charged the jury that the article was, as a matter of law, defamatory; leaving it to them to decide whether or not it was false.
Order affirmed.