Anthony v. Barss
| Citation | 193 N.E.2d 329,346 Mass. 401 |
| Parties | Frank ANTHONY v. William BARSS. Frank ANTHONY v. Connie BARSS. |
| Decision Date | 01 November 1963 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts |
John G. Kottis, Uxbridge, for plaintiff.
Richard S. McCabe, Maynard, for defendants.
Before WILKINS, C. J., and SPALDING, WHITTEMORE, KIRK, SPIEGEL, and REARDON, JJ.
In these two actions of tort for libel the declarations are identical. In each a demurrer was sustained on the ground that no legal cause of action was stated. The plaintiff appealed.
We summarize the allegations of the declarations. The plaintiff was the owner, editor, and publisher of a newspaper with news and editorial coverage, containing regular advertising from business establishments, called 'Frontier,' and circulated in Worcester and Middlesex counties. The defendant 'falsely and maliciously wrote and published of the plaintiff and his publication' a letter, which was sent to all the advertisers, which read:
'June 20, 1962
The charges and statements were false and, by reason of their publication, the plaintiff's reputation in his profession and his reputation and standing in the community 'as a publisher, as a businessman, and as a man' were damaged.
In this action for libel the difficulty, as usual, lies in the application to facts of well settled law. See Muchnick v. Post Publishing Co., 332 Mass. 304, 305-306, 125 N.E.2d 137, 51 A.L.R.2d 547. A demurrer cannot be sustained unless the words are incapable of any defamatory meaning. Ingalls v. Hastings & Sons Publishing Co., 304 Mass. 31, 34, 22 N.E.2d 657. The test is whether, in the circumstances, the writing...
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