155 Ky. 1 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1913
Opinion op the Court by
Reversing.
Plaintiff, Rediford Spears, brought tbis action against Mont McCoy to recover damages for slander. A demurrer was sustained to tbe petition and tbe petition dismissed. Plaintiff appeals.
“The plaintiff, Rediford Spears, states that he is a teacher-of. common schopls;by.profession in. Pike County, Kentucky, which county is his home and in which county he now resides; that-he holds a first class certificate to teach in the common schools of said county and has been a teacher for the last 10 years.
“He states that the defendant, Mont McCoy, in Pike County, Kentucky, on the-day of July, 1912, and in the presence and hearing-of different and divers persons, spoke of plaintiff falsely and maliciously, wrongfully and unlawfully, these words, to-wit: ‘I do not want such a teacher as Rediford -Spears because he is all the time courting the girls and did court them last year in the school'; that he would dismiss the boys last year in school and keep thé girls in and give them candy and court them,’ meaning thereby that the plaintiff who taught in sub-district number 124, Pike County, Kentucky, last year, had kept the girls who were his students in after the boys had been dismissed and had had carnal sexual intercourse with them; that plaintiff is now employed to teach-in- said sub-district for the coming school year; that he makes his living by teaching in the common schools of Pike County; that said language, which is false and untrue, has greatly injured his reputation as a teacher and has caused him to suffer great mental anguish and humiliation and has greatly injured his character to his great damage in the full and just sum of $10,-000.
“Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against the defendant for the sum of $10,000 for costs and all proper relief. ’ ’
While there is an attempt on the part of plaintiff to give a very strained construction to the words which it is alleged that the defendant spoke of him, it is well settled that an innuendo cannot extend the meaning of words beyond'their natural import: It is only explanatory of some matter already expressed. It may show the application, but cannot add to or enlarge or change the sense of the words. Watson v. Hampton, 2 Bibb., 319; Moore v. Johnson, 147 Ky., 584. The question, therefore, turns on whether or not the words are actionable per se. Words are slanderous or actionable per se only in cases where they are falsely spoken, and (1) impute the commission of a crime involving moral turpitude, for which the party might be indicted and punished;
It follows that the trial court should have, overruled the demurrer to the petition.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.