Doan v. Kelley

• Decision Date: 10 January 1890
• Citation: 121 Ind. 413,23 N.E. 266
• Parties: Doan v. Kelley.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

121 Ind. 413

23 N.E. 266

Doan

v.Kelley.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Jan. 10, 1890.

Appeal from circuit court, Vanderburgh county; William F. Parrett, Judge.

Charles L. Wedding, for appellant. Townsend & Flinn and W. S. Hurst, for appellee.

Mitchell, C. J.

The plaintiff, Laney Kelley, charged in her complaint that the appellant, on the 20th day of November, 1885, “for the purpose of impeaching her good name and subjecting her to public scandal and disgrace, and bringing her into disrepute among her neighbors and acquaintances,” published, in a newspaper of which he was the publisher and proprietor, “of and concerning this plaintiff, the following false, wicked, and malicious libel, to-wit: ‘A School Child Killed in Pike County by a Teacher. On Monday last, one of the scholars attending the school at Burr Oak school-house, in Jefferson township, Pike county, died under singular circumstances. It had violated some rule, and the teacher, Miss Louise Kelley, had just finished punishing it, when the little girl coughed, and dropped to the floor, with a stream of blood running from her mouth, and, before any one realized the danger, died on the floor. Great excitement prevailed as the death became known, and the teacher, a young woman,-probably 21 years old,-was arrested and taken to Petersburg, where circuit court is in session, and lodged in jail. Threats of lynching the young woman were freely made, but no attempts to carry them out developed. The death of the child probably resulted from the bursting of an internal blood-vessel, possibly induced by the excitement incident to punishment,’-thereby meaning that this plaintiff was guilty of the crime of murdering a little child,” etc.

The only question involved is whether or not, conceding, as the demurrer to the complaint does, that the publication was false, and made for the purpose charged, the matter published is, per se, libelous. The question having come here upon the ruling of the court on a demurrer to the complaint, we are to consider the publication as a mere invention, devoid of truth, pubished for the purpose of scandalizing the plaintiff, and to say whether or not, when so considered, it is defamatory and libelous. Thus considered, there is no room for diverse conclusions concerning the libelous character of the article. To say that a child has been killed by its teacher, as is declared in a displayed head-line; that the teacher, naming her, had been lodged in jail; and that threats of lynching her had been freely made,-is certainly calculated to bring the teacher into disgrace, and make her the subject of disparaging criticism. The...