Galloway v. Cox
Decision Date | 16 February 1934 |
Docket Number | No. 13784.,13784. |
Citation | 172 S.E. 761 |
Parties | GALLOWAY. v. COX. |
Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Florence County; R. W. Sharkey, County Judge.
Action by T. A. Galloway against G. O Cox. From an adverse order, defendant appeals. Order reversed, and complaint dismissed.
Wm. H. Smith, of Florence, for appellant.
W. Stokes Houck and W. Marshall Bridges, both of Florence, for respondent.
The plaintiff brings this action to recover damages of the defendant for the use by the latter of alleged slanderous language to and of the plaintiff. The allegations of the complaint, stated briefly, are: That plaintiff rented of the defendant certain premises in which he established a woodyard; that in the wood business he took as a partner one Russell Green; that on a date named defendant demanded of plaintiff the sum of $2.50, the amount of the rent for two weeks, which was not then due, and plaintiff did not have the money with which to pay it, and so informed defendant, who in a rude and insolent manner said to plaintiff, in the presence of Green and two white boys:
Defendant demurred to the complaint for that it did not state a cause of action, since: (a) "The words alleged to have been used by defendant do not impute to plaintiff the commission of any criminal offense, and (b) the language alleged to have been used contains no allegation of any special damages suffered by plaintiff on account of said language."
The judge of the civil court of Florence county, in which court the action was brought, in an order dated July 27, 1933, held:
Notice was given of intention to appeal from this order. Before the expiration of the time for perfecting the appeal, the attorneys of record, representing the defendant, withdrew from the case, and the attorney now of record was substituted.
Upon proper notice to plaintiff's attorneys, defendant's attorney moved before the judge of the civil court for an order vacating and modifying the order of July 27. His honor, in an order overruling the motion, said:
From this order this appeal comes, based on four exceptions, all of which will be considered and embraced in the judgment of the court, but they will not be considered separately.
The law relating to libel and slander is well known and established, but there has ever seemed to be a difficulty in its application; therefore, the many cases with which the books are filled, appear to have been decided each upon its special facts; it is difficult, therefore, to measure the facts of this case by those of decided cases. Each case must stand on its own bottom.
in Black's Law Dictionary (3d Ed.) p. 1104, is given an especially clear definition of "libel and of slander, " and a statement of the distinction between them in the requisites of allegation and proof: "If a written or printed publication tends to degrade a person, that is, to reduce his character or reputation in the estimation of his friends or acquaintances, or the public, or to disgrace him, or to render him odious, contemptible or ridiculous, it is 'libelous per se', though spoken words are 'slanderous per se' only if they falsely impute the commission of a crime involving moral turpitude, an infectious disease, or unfitness to perform duties of an office or employment, prejudice him in his profession or trade, or tend to disinherit him. (Italics added.)
The following statement of the law is taken from 17 R. C. L. 290:
"The reasons given to explain this distinction are that written or printed slander is much more extensively and permanently injurious to character than verbal, being more widely circulated; that it is, therefore,...
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