Bell v. Simmons

101 S.E.2d 383, 247 N.C. 488, 1958 N.C. LEXIS 569
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 10, 1958
Docket165
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 101 S.E.2d 383 (Bell v. Simmons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bell v. Simmons, 101 S.E.2d 383, 247 N.C. 488, 1958 N.C. LEXIS 569 (N.C. 1958).

Opinions

Bobbitt, J.

There was evidence which, taken in the light most favorable to plaintiff, tended to show the facts narrated below.

Plaintiff, since 1943, had been treasurer of the Agricultural Stabilization Corporation (ASC) in Duplin County. Its office was in the County Agriculture Building. Since 1952, she had been office manager. ASC paid her a salary of $5,100.00 per year.

Since 1945, plaintiff had been Secretary-Treasurer of the Farm Bureau in Duplin County. During this period she had received and disbursed Farm Bureau funds in the total amount of $31,807.30. She received no stipulated compensation from the Farm Bureau. From time to time, she received “a token of appreciation,” or “a Christmas present.” The last such present or payment was received on January 13, 1953; and the total received by her over the period of approximately eleven years was $600.00.

The Farm Bureau had no separate office. Plaintiff performed her services for it, “on the side,” in the ASC office, and “on nights and on Saturdays after office work.”

Defendant, for some four or five years, had been President of the Farm Bureau in Duplin County.

Prior to October, 1955, the three members of the Duplin County ASC Committee had been suspended. Prior to October 13, 1955, the News and Observer “had carried various stories . . . about an investigation of the office by the State ASC Committee.” Whatever the alleged reason for said suspension of the committee members, plaintiff was not affected thereby. She continued as secretary-treasurer and office manager until November 1, 1956, when, on account of her impaired health, she resigned. It is noted that the suspended (ASC) committee members were re-elected.

[492]*492Shortly prior to October 12, 1955, according to Barwick, defendant told him that “soon he would have a red-hot news story for us.” On October 12, 1955, late in the afternoon, defendant talked with Barwick in the office of the Duplin Times, Kenansville. Barwick, having made a memorandum of the conversation, telephoned Clay and passed on to Clay what defendant had told him. At Clay’s request, defendant was called to the phone; and then Clay and defendant conversed. Thereafter, Clay wrote the article but not the caption.

It appears that defendant asked Clay “not to bring the other issue (ASC) into the Farm Bureau Issue.” It appears also that portions of the published article were based on information obtained otherwise than from defendant; also, that certain words and phrases, such as “the mystery has thickened,” and “the shocker,” are interpretations of what defendant said rather than exact statements made by defendant. Even so, enough remains, based on statements attributed to defendant, to permit these inferences: (1) that plaintiff should have, but did not, pay certain club women the ten dollars to which they were entitled the preceding December for each fifty members they had signed up in the Farm Bureau in 1954; (2) that plaintiff, when pressed for an explanation, stated that she had not done so because she had no records; (3) that Farm Bureau records had been missing for some time, a fact defendant was surprised to learn on October 3rd when he “stumbled on it”; (4) that important records of the Farm Bureau, which should have been in plaintiff’s custody, were missing, without explanation; and (5) that the sheriff was called in to investigate the matter of the missing records.

Also, there was evidence that the last paragraph of the published article was to the effect that “Simmons also said that Mrs. Bell who lives near Mount Olive, N. C., will be relieved of her duties with the Farm Bureau.” The said paragraph does not appear in the portion of the complaint purporting to quote the published article. But this evidence, whether competent or incompetent, must be considered in passing on defendant’s motion for nonsuit. Kientz v. Carlton, 245 N.C. 236, 246, 96 S.E. 2d 14, and cases cited.

We refrain from discussing the evidence in detail. Suffice to say, plaintiff’s evidence is to the effect that no Farm Bureau or other records were or are missing. Her testimony tends to dispel any suggestion of neglect or wrongful conduct on her part.

It appears that the ASC office had been entered early in 1955, at which time a small desk drawer in which plaintiff kept records, including certain records of the Farm Bureau, had [493]*493been prized open; that plaintiff promptly reported this to the ASC people; but that, since nothing relating to the Farm Bureau was missing or affected, she did not report it to defendant. The evidence tends to show that the sheriff was called in, when the Farm Bureau people learned of this incident, to investigate the said entry and opening of the desk drawer, not to investigate or to search for missing records. It appears further that the sheriff had no information on which to conduct and did not attempt to conduct any investigation. However, a person reading the published article did not have the benefit of this information.

Defendant, on adverse examination, testified that all he told Barwick and Clay as to missing Farm Bureau records was what plaintiff had told him; and Barwick and Clay testified that defendant so stated to them. However, as to this, the evidence of plaintiff is directly in conflict, both as to the actual facts and as to what she told defendant. True, plaintiff offered in evidence the testimony given by defendant on adverse examination; but discrepancies and contradictions in the evidence, even though such occur in the evidence offered in behalf of plaintiff, are to be resolved by the jury, not by the court. White v. Lacey, 245 N.C. 364, 96 S.E. 2d 1; Gilreath v. Silverman, 245 N.C. 51, 95 S.E. 2d 107; Cozart v. Hudson, 239 N.C. 279, 78 S.E. 2d 881.

The evidence is susceptible of the interpretation that defendant acted in good faith in providing the data for the published article and in the honest belief that he conceived it his duty to make public what he had “discovered,” even though he may have acted impulsively and under misapprehension of the facts. But evidence as to good faith, etc., is not determinative as to plaintiff’s right to recover compensatory damages. Ivie v. King, 167 N.C. 174, 83 S.E. 339; Fields v. Bynum, 156 N.C. 413, 72 S.E. 449.

It is noted that plaintiff both alleged and offered evidence tending to show that she had suffered special damages, to wit, illness sufficient to require medical and hospital care and expense.

In Flake v. News Co., 212 N.C. 780, 195 S.E. 55, it is stated by Barnhill, J. (later C. J.) that a publication is actionable per se, “if, when considered alone without innuendo: ... (3) it tends to subject one to ridicule, contempt, or disgrace, or (4) it tends to impeach one in his trade or profession,” citing authorities. The published article, when restricted to the statements attributed by plaintiff’s evidence to defendant, contains defamatory language within the scope of both (3) and (4). See Kindley v. Privette, 241 N.C. 140, 84 S.E. 2d 660, and cases cited.

[494]*494Devin, C. J., citing numerous authorities, states this general rule: “It is well settled that all who take part in the publication of a libel or who procure or command libelous matter to be published may be sued by the person defamed either jointly or severally.” Taylor v. Press Co., 237 N.C. 551, 75 S.E.

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Bell v. Simmons
101 S.E.2d 383 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
101 S.E.2d 383, 247 N.C. 488, 1958 N.C. LEXIS 569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-v-simmons-nc-1958.