Appeal
from Circuit Court, Allegany County; A. Hunter and Robert R
Henderson, Judges.
Action
by Adelaide L. Pelton against Annie Cairnes for slander.
Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.
Argued
before McSHERRY, C.J., and BRISCOE, PAGE, PEARCE, SCHMUCKER
JONES, and BURKE, JJ.
BURKE
J.
This is
an appeal from a judgment entered against the appellant by
the circuit court for Allegany county in the action for
slander instituted against her by the appellee, Adelaide L
Pelton. There are four exceptions contained in the record.
Three of these are concerned with the rulings of the court
upon questions of evidence, and the fourth relates to the
disposition made by the court of the prayers of the
respective parties offered at the conclusion of the case.
It
appears from the record that the appellee, Mrs. Pelton, who
is the mother of a number of children, was the widow of John
Pelton, who died in 1901; that both the appellant and
appellee were residents of the city of Cumberland, Md. The
home of Mrs. Cairnes was on the corner of Rebecca and Union
streets, and that of Mrs. Pelton was located opposite to that
of Mrs. Cairnes on Rebecca street, both houses fronting on
Union street. The alleged words which constitute the cause of
action are set forth in the declaration as follows:
"That on or about the 15th day of September, 1902, the
said Annie Cairnes, in conversation with Mrs. Ruth H.
Dempster and other persons, who were then residing in the
city of Cumberland, wickedly contriving to injure and defame
the good name and character and reputation for chastity of
the said Adelaide L. Pelton (who had always been a good,
pure, faithful, chaste, and affectionate wife to her said
husband, and who had always been a pure and chaste woman, of
good character and reputation for chastity as aforesaid), and
to cause it to be believed by the said Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster
and other people of the city of Cumberland, Allegany county,
and vicinity, that the said Adelaide L. Pelton
was, during her said marriage, unchaste and had been guilty
of adultery, falsely and maliciously spoke of and touching
the character and reputation for chastity of the said
Adelaide L. Pelton words as follows, viz. 'You are moving
here, and don't know the people' (meaning thereby
that Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster was moving into the vicinity where
Mrs. Pelton lived and was not acquainted with the people
residing therein). 'I am going to warn you who not to
associate with, who are not fit people. These people across
the way' (meaning thereby that she, the said Annie
Cairnes, was about to warn the said Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster,
and to name to her what people in the vicinity were fit and
proper persons for her, the said Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster, to
associate with, and meaning thereby to designate the said
Adelaide L. Pelton as a person not fit for her, the said Mrs.
Ruth H. Dempster, to associate with); and upon inquiry by the
said Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster as to what was the matter with
them, the said Mrs. Annie Cairnes, wickedly contriving to
injure and defame the good name and chaste character and the
character and reputation for chastity of the said Adelaide L.
Pelton, and to cause it to be believed by the said Mrs. Ruth
H. Dempster and the other people of Allegany county that the
said Adelaide L. Pelton was, during her marriage to the said
John Pelton and during the time she was his wife and had
lived with him as such, unchaste and had been guilty of
adultery, and was a woman of bad character and reputation for
chastity, falsely and maliciously spoke of and touching the
character and reputation for chastity of the said Adelaide L.
Pelton to the said Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster and others the
false, scandalous, and malicious words as follows: 'Mrs.
Pelton's youngest child was born of another man. Her
husband was paralyzed for years, and it would have been
impossible for him to have been the father of it. Yes, it is
true, and everybody knows it' (meaning thereby that the
youngest child of the said Adelaide L. Pelton was not the
child of John Pelton, the husband of the said Adelaide L.
Pelton, but was the child of another man in the town of
Cumberland, and that Mrs. Pelton was an unfaithful wife and
unchaste woman, and meaning thereby to charge that the said
Adelaide L. Pelton was a woman of bad character for chastity
and guilty of adultery during her marriage with her husband,
the said John Pelton, and while she lived with him as his
wife, and that the said Adelaide L. Pelton had carnal
intercourse with men other than her husband during her
marriage to her husband, the said John Pelton, and while she
was living with him as his wife, and that the people of the
vicinity in which she lived and the people of the city of
Cumberland and of Allegany county knew that her reputation
for chastity was bad, and she was a lewd and unchaste woman,
and of lewd conduct and behavior during her marriage to the
said John Pelton, her husband as aforesaid)." The
defendant filed a demand for a bill of particulars. In
response to this demand the plaintiff filed a bill of
particulars, in which she stated "that the defendant, in
Cumberland, Md., on the 15th day of September, 1902, or about
that day in September, 1902, maliciously stated in the
presence of Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster that the plaintiff's
youngest child was born of another man, her husband was
paralyzed for years, and it would have been impossible for
him to have been the father of it. 'Yes; it is true, and
everybody knows it.' Which statement the plaintiff says
was false and malicious, and constituted a willful slander
upon the character and good name of the plaintiff, and has
greatly damaged her, for which she claims $5,000
damages." The defendant then entered the general issue
plea. This was the only plea interposed by her to the action,
and the case was tried upon the issue joined upon this plea.
The
plaintiff offered evidence by Mrs. Ruth H. Dempster to prove
that Mrs. Cairnes had published of and concerning the
plaintiff the defamatory words set out in the declaration and
in the plaintiff's bill of particulars. The plaintiff
then called Miss Louise Plato, and proposed to offer
testimony by her tending to prove that she was present with
Mrs. Dempster and Mrs. Cairnes on the occasion testified to
by Mrs. Dempster, and that Mrs. Cairnes on that occasion had
said in her presence and in that of Mrs. Dempster: "You
are moving here and don't know the people. I am going to
warn you who not to associate with, who are not fit people.
These people across the way--Mrs. Pelton's youngest child
was born of another man. Her husband was paralyzed for years
and...
