46 La. Ann. 1368 | La. | 1894
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiff, a physician, claims of the defendant, a druggist, damages for his refusal to fill plaintiff’s prescriptions and for slander. The defence is that defendant was unable to fill the prescriptions, and a denial of the slander imputed to defendant. From the judgment of fifty dollars against hiim, defendant appeals, and, answering the appeal, plaintiff asks that the damages awarded be increased. ...
It appears from the record the defendant did decline tó prepare two prescriptions of the plaintiff. In one'a patent medicine formed a component. The defendant seems to have been averse-to putting up prescriptions of which the patent medicine formed a part. In his own language as a witness, he was-'unwilling to'take the responsibility of such a prescription, as he was not sure of the composition of the patent medicine. There is som'e'testimdny that it is not usual to include a patent medicine as a component of prescriptions, and there is testimony it-is not infrequent. 1 At least, this ■difference in the testimony Of the physicians who' testify, deserves some consideration in connection with defendant's unwillingness" to prepare the prescriptions. With reference to'the other prescript
The slander attributed in the petition to defendant was, in the course of a discussion between him and one of his fellow citizens» begun on the street and continued in a barber shop. It commenced with a request of defendant for information of the gentleman addressed, formerly a representative in the Legislature from defendant’s parish, whether the law compelled a druggist to fill prescriptions presented to him. The information given on that subject did not suit defendant, seems to have excited him, and led him to make observations offensive and unjust to plaintiff, at least in their tendency to affect those who were gathered by the animated and ■ angry discussion, or to whom the observations might be repeated. The defendant, exercising his privilege of declining to fill plaintiff’s prescriptions, should for that very reason have abstained from any ■comments calculated, to convey impressions damaging to plaintiff’s
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment of the lower court should be avoided and annulled, and it is now adjudged and decreed that plaintiff recover from defendant one hundred dollars, with costs in both courts.