Hagener v. Pulitzer Publishing Co.

158 S.W. 54, 172 Mo. App. 436, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 398
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 16, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 158 S.W. 54 (Hagener v. Pulitzer Publishing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hagener v. Pulitzer Publishing Co., 158 S.W. 54, 172 Mo. App. 436, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 398 (Mo. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinions

ELLISON, P. J.

Plaintiff was the sheriff of Cole county, and in his petition in this action charges defendant, who publishes a newspaper in the city of St. Louis, of large circulation, with libeling him. He recovered compensatory and exemplary damages in the circuit court.

The published matter set out as the libel is as follows:

“CHARGES SHERIFF WITH FISHING AT TIME OF INQUEST.
Cole County Official May Face Proceedings to Oust Him for Dereliction of Duty.
Jefferson City, Mo., July 2. — Jack Slate, prosecuting attorney of Cole county, said this morning that he may institute-proceedings against Henry Hagener, sheriff of Cole county, under the derelict official act and seek to have that officer removed from office.
‘ ‘ Slate said it was the duty of Sheriff Hagener to have been here yesterday morning when the coroner’s inquest was held, and to have done what' he could yesterday toward clearing up the mystery surrounding the death of Miss Anna Wendler, whose body was found in the Missouri river Thursday night. Hagener, the prosecuting attorney said, went fishing with a party of friends yesterday morning.
“Hagener is still out of the city. The coroner’s jury asked about a pipe stem and a quantity of tobacco which was found near the effects of the girl on the [442]*442right of way, but it was stated that they were iu the ■sheriff’s possession and were not available.”

There is a rule in the law of slander that if one utters a charge against another, but accompanies it with such statement as to show it could not be true (as if one should charge “he is a murderer — he killed my dog”), then, it is said, the antidote has been sent along with the poison and the charge is not slander. Defendant is seeking to apply this rule to a case in libel and to go free of plaintiff’s action on the ground that, while it did publish that plaintiff had violated his official duty and was going to be prosecuted for it and turned out of office, for not attending upon the coroner at the inquest; yet, since it was the law that attendance upon a coroner’s inquest was not a part of a sheriff’s duty, no libel could be made out of the publication.

Without deciding at this place that the rule would, or should, apply to a case of this character (on which subject, see Brown v. Knapp, 213 Mo. 1. c. 680-686; Perselly v. Bacon, 20 Mo. 1. c. 337; Prewitt v. Wilson, 128 Iowa, 198, 202), we find that if it were conceded to apply, it would not acquit the defendant. For this publication not only charges a violation of duty in plaintiff’s failing to attend on the coroner, but also contains the separate charge that he had violated his official duty in not doing what he could toward clearing up the mystery surrounding the death of the young woman. Now it is the official duty of a sheriff to employ all reasonable means and use all reasonable endeavor to discover whether a person, suddenly missing in the community and found dead, under circumstances indicating foul play, had been murdered, and to find and arrest the guilty parties. Therefore a violation of duty for which plaintiff was to be prosecuted and ousted from office, was charged, and it was libelous per se. For it is well-recognized law that to falsely charge a public officer with a willful breach of his offi[443]*443cial duty is libelous per se. The evidence in the case shows fully the efforts plaintiff made along the line of his official duty, from his first information of the young woman being missed. It was for the jury to say whether he had been falsely charged with a failure to perform such duty; and we find that phase of the case was submitted by defendant’s instruction No. 7.

It is true that plaintiff, in instructions given at his instance submitted to the jury the charges of dereliction of duty in failing to attend upon the coroner. If this was error, it was condoned by defendant in asking similar instruction on its part.

We are not unmindful that a party will not be held to have condoned erroneous instructions for the other party, where he has first sought to have the erroneous matter excluded by instructions which have been refused. In this case that was not done. It is true defendant offered a demurrer to the evidence, but that was properly refused, since it carried with it an assertion that plaintiff could not recover for the other charge of which we have spoken. And the same may be said of refused instruction “B;” it directed a verdict without regard to the other charge. Indeed it appears that defendant did not indicate in any way, by pleading or otherwise, that it intended a defense on the ground that no libelous matter was charged.

But allowing that the published matter did not -contain a charge of breach of official duty other than a failure to attend upon the coroner, we are of the opinion, that so confining the publication, it was yet a libel to charge him with a breach of official duty for which he was to be expelled from office, for failure to attend upon the coroner, notwithstanding that in law it was not his duty and its nonperformance would not, in law, máke him liable to expulsion from office. In other words, we hold the fact that the charge made does not, in law, constitute a breach of official duty for which an officer may be expelled from his office, [444]*444.yet if the charge is such as will bring the officer into disgrace, “expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or to deprive him of the benefits of public confidence and social intercourse,” it is libelous. [Sec. 4818, R. S. 1909.] In such case the mere fact that persons learned in the law may know that there has been no breach of duty, is not an antidote to the poison which will affect the minds of the general public. The rule seems to be different in slander. However unreasonable it may be, it appears' to be established not to be slander to call one a thief accompanying the charge with such statement of the act as shows it could not have been larceny as defined in law. Thus it was held not to be slander to charge one with stealing the fixtures on another’s land, such as cribs and grain bins (Trimble v. Poster, 87 Mo. 49); or for a landlord to charge his tenant with stealing his corn, the latter being in possession of the crop and upon which the former had a lien for the rent (Hall v. Adkins, 59 Mo. 144); or that he stole the windows from another’s house (Wing v. Wing, 66 Me. 62). So if one charges, another with stealing corn, the corn being on the stalk, it is held not to be slander; but if it be corn severed from the stalk and lying upon the ground, it is. [Stitzell v. Reynolds, 67 Pa. St. 54.] And if one says to another: “You are a thief, you have stolen my marie,” it is said not to be slander for the reason that marie being a part of the land is not, in law, subject to larceny. [Ogden v. Riley, 14 N. J. L. 186.] So, if one charges a treasurer “has robbed the treasury of a sum of money and bought a farm with it,” it is said not to be slander, since to appropriate money of which you are in possession does not come within the definition of robbery as legally understood. [Allen v. Hillman, 12 Pick. 101.] So it was once understood by lawyers that in the old common law an unmarried woman could not ■ commit adultery, since it was an injury to the family, the blood of which could [445]*445not be adulterated except through a married woman. If that should be considered to be the law now (see State v. Holland, 162 Mo. App.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Laux v. Motor Carriers Council of St. Louis, Inc.
499 S.W.2d 805 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1973)
Shumate v. Johnson Publishing Co.
293 P.2d 531 (California Court of Appeal, 1956)
Laun v. Union Electric Co. of Missouri
166 S.W.2d 1065 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1942)
Lonergan v. Love
150 S.W.2d 534 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1941)
Behrendt v. Times Mirror Co.
85 P.2d 949 (California Court of Appeal, 1938)
Conrad v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co.
73 S.W.2d 438 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1934)
Radford v. Horton
227 S.W. 1073 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
158 S.W. 54, 172 Mo. App. 436, 1912 Mo. App. LEXIS 398, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hagener-v-pulitzer-publishing-co-moctapp-1912.