Brown v. Nickerson

71 Mass. 1

• Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Decided: October 15, 1855
• Status: Published

Opinion

Metcalf, J.

By the law of this Commonwealth, (however it may be elsewhere,) it is actionable to charge a person falsely and maliciously with an offence that may subject him to a punishment which will bring disgrace upon him, though the punishment be not in itself infamous. Miller v. Parish, 8 Pick. 385, In that case it was decided that a charge against a woman, of an offence that was then punishable by a small fine, was actionable ; a punishment for that offence necessarily bringing her into disgrace. And that case is decisive of this. For whether the charge, which this demurrer admits that the defendant falsely and maliciously made against the female plaintiff, be that she was a common drunkard, punishable by confinement in the house of correction, (Rev. Sts. c. 143, § 5,) or only that she was once drunk by the voluntary use of intoxicating liquor, and punishable by a fine of five dollars, (Rev. Sts. c. 130, § 18,) the charge is actionable ; for the punishment of a woman for either offence must bring disgrace upon her.

Demurrer overruled.