Dawley v. Callahan

• Decision Date: 08 July 1922
• Citation: 189 N.W. 149,178 Wis. 1
• Parties: DAWLEY v. CALLAHAN.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

178 Wis. 1

189 N.W. 149

DAWLEY

v.CALLAHAN.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

July 8, 1922.

Appeal from Municipal Court of Langlade County; Arthur Goodrick, Judge.

Suit by W. H. Dawley against John Callahan. From judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

The plaintiff is a resident taxpayer of Langlade county, and brought this action to enjoin the defendant, Callahan, as county treasurer of Langlade county, from publishing the delinquent tax list of that county in the Antigo Herald, upon the ground that the Antigo Herald had not been regularly published in said county for at least two years prior to the time of the proposed publication, as required by section 1130 of the Statutes of 1919 (section 74.33 (1), Wis. Stats. 1921).

The facts as found by the court are briefly as follows: At the time of the commencement of this action, there was published in the city of Antigo, Langlade county, the Antigo Daily Journal, a daily newspaper, the Antigo Weekly Journal, a weekly newspaper, the Farmers' Journal, published biweekly, and the Weekly News Item, a weekly newspaper, all of which publications had for more than two years preceding the commencement of the action been regularly published in the English language. The Antigo Herald issued its first publication December 5, 1919. It claims to be qualified under the statute to publish the tax list by reason of the purchase of a newspaper published in the German language, known as the Antigo Herold, which had been published by one Goebel as a German newspaper for something like 30 years prior to the commencement of the action. In the fall of 1919, Goebel gave to the owners of the Antigo Herald a bill of sale, which purported to convey to them all legal rights of the paper formerly conducted by Goebel. None of the physical assets owned and used by Goebel in the publication of the Antigo Herold were transferred by him to the owners of the Antigo Herald. Goebel's last publication of the Antigo Herold was November 28, 1919. On December 5th of the following week he published a German paper in the same form and general appearance, using the same equipment that he used prior to that time in the printing and publication of the Antigo Herold; the only difference being that the issue of December 5th was called the Antigo Banner and the serial number was changed to volume 1, No. 1. Underneath the name “Antigo Banner” appeared the words: “Formerly the Antigo Herold.” In the issue of December 5th, appeared the following explanation:

“To our Readers: The publisher of the Antigo Herold has sold the title of his paper, published for 31 years, to a newly organized corporation, the Langlade Printing Company, who will continue to publish the paper in the language of our country, and in the publishing and editing of this German paper a change will take place in so far that this paper will change its name to the Antigo Banner. In form and contents will be for the time being the same. Our readers this week will also receive a new paper, the Antigo Herald, as a sample copy of the new paper and those who would like to read a well edited paper, may subscribe for it. In letters, etc., addressed to us you will please, in order to avoid mistakes, omit the heretofore heading of our paper and simply address Ed. Goebel, Antigo, Wisconsin.”

It appeared that the paper edited and published by Goebel, called the Antigo Banner, contained the same or substantially the same advertisements, was the same kind of a paper, printed in the same language, at the same place, by the same editor and publisher, and was sent to the same subscribers. The Langlade Printing Company was a copartnership...