Hall v. Huffman

• Decision Date: 19 May 1914
• Citation: 166 S.W. 770,159 Ky. 72
• Parties: HALL v. HUFFMAN.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

166 S.W. 770

159 Ky. 72

HALL v. HUFFMAN.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

May 19, 1914

Appeal from Circuit Court, Pike County.

Action by Lee Hall against Effie Huffman. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

J. S Cline, of Pikeville, for appellant.

Butler & Moore, of Pikeville, for appellee.

NUNN J.

Lee Hall, the wife of John Hall, sued Effie Huffman for slander. The case went to trial, and the jury returned a verdict for the defendant. She appeals, complaining of numerous errors of the court below in the introduction and rejection of evidence, and also as to the instructions given.

The first question, however, is as to the sufficiency of her petition, to which a demurrer was overruled. If it will not support a judgment, the verdict against her cannot be said to cure it, and, since we have reached the conclusion that her petition is fatally defective, it will not be necessary to consider the errors she complains of.

Her petition is as follows: "The plaintiff, Lee Hall, states that she is a married woman, the wife of John Hall; that on the day of _______, 1911, the defendant Effie Huffman in Pike county, Ky. in the presence of divers persons, falsely and maliciously spoke of and concerning plaintiff these words That John Hall said that he had cuckolded her husband, John Hall, thereby meaning, and the hearers so understood it to mean that plaintiff was guilty of adultery; that the John Hall spoken of that had cuckolded her husband was a distant relative of her husband, to plaintiff damage in the sum of $5,000. She states that defendant is a resident of Pike county." If the words spoken have reference to appellant, they are clearly actionable. Townshend on Slander and Libel (3d Ed.) pages 265, 266. According to Webster, a cuckold is a man whose wife is unfaithful; the husband of an adulteress. It is explained that the word alludes to the habit of the female cuckold, which lays her eggs in the nests of other birds to be hatched by them. To make a cuckold of a man is to seduce his wife, and in order to determine the sufficiency of the petition, it is only necessary to see whether plaintiff, at the time she alleges the words were spoken by John Hall of her husband, was his wife, because in only that way can it be said that the words were spoken of her, and, of course, if the words were not spoken of her, she has no cause of action. The effect of her petition is that at the time it was filed she was the wife of John Hall and that the defendant Effie Huffman "spoke of and concerning plaintiff" certain words. The words show that they had direct reference to her husband. When defendant repeated the words that John Hall said he had cuckolded her husband, John Hall, the most that can be said is that she was merely identifying the John...