27 N.Y.S. 589 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1894
This is an appeal from a judgment entered on dismissal of the complaint, on a motion made after the jury had been impaneled, and before the case was opened, upon the ground that the complaint failed to set forth a cause of action. It was in effect a demurrer. As matter of law, defendant had a right to make such
“First. That the plaintiff is a married woman, the wife of Mr. Harry Thomas, and is a woman of standing and respectability in the community and among her neighbors where she is known. Second. That, as plaintiff is informed and believes, the defendant, with the intent to injure and defame plaintiff in her domestic and social relations, on or about the 10th day of August, 1892, in the city of Brooklyn, stated and declared and spoke tOi and in the hearing of a representative of the Weekly Newspaper, published weekly in Brooklyn, in the vicinity where plaintiff resides, and of sundry other persons, that ‘she (meaning this plaintiff) was intoxicated at a camp meeting held an evening or two prior;’ that ‘she (meaning plaintiff) caused a disturbance at the meeting; and that she had to be put out by a policeman.’ That said statements by defendant were absolutely false, and were made maliciously by defendant to have same published, and to malign and disgrace this plaintiff. That said false statements against plaintiff, so publicly made by defendant, have been published as intended by defendant; and by the reason of the acts of defendant aforesaid, and of her said statements, and the publicity maliciously secured by defendant to spread same in said community, and through a newspaper, plaintiff has thereby been caused ■ great trouble and anguish in mind and body, and has been put to legal and other •expense in refuting and denying defendant’s said calumnies,—all this to her damage in the sum of $10,000.”
It is necessary, in the first place, to see what the complaint •charges. It not only charges slanderous words spoken, but more,— it charges an unlawful act on the part of the defendant, by and from which the plaintiff has suffered damage. It is generally conceded, where a person does an unlawful act which results in a particular injury to a person, the latter has a remedy by action. That unlawful act was stating to a newspaper man—a reporter—libelous matter concerning the plaintiff, and thereby securing the publication thereof. Laws 1890, c. 340. Is there any doubt that the publication was secured thereby? The statute does not say that the person, in making the statement, must procure it to be published, or take any active part in its publication, in order to be guilty of a misdemeanor, but that making the libelous statements, and thereby •securing the publication thereof. I also think the complaint •charged a libel. Suppose a person went into a newspaper office, and dictated to a stenographer, for the purpose of having it published, libelous matter; would he not be liable for setting the libel in motion? It is not necessary that he should write it out. He is as much a principal in the matter as the editor or publisher; more guilty, in fact. A libel was published, and all engaged in it knowingly were principals, and the complaint sufficiently so charges, •specifically setting out the part played by the defendant. Neither •do I regard it as clear that a good cause of action for slander is not set out in the complaint. Defendant charged that the “plaintiff was intoxicated at a camp meeting held an evening or two prior;” that “she. (meaning the plaintiff) caused , a disturbance at the meeting; and that she had to be put out by a policeman.” The respond