Hollenbeck v. Hall
Decision Date | 15 October 1897 |
Citation | 72 N.W. 518,103 Iowa 214 |
Parties | HOLLENBECK v. HALL. |
Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from superior court, Cedar Rapids county; T. M. Giberson, Judge.
The plaintiff alleged in his petition that ” Then follows a denial in detail of the statements contained in the letter, the allegations that it was published by mailing copies to persons named, and that plaintiff has been damaged in the sum of $5,000, for which amount judgment is prayed. No special damages are alleged. To this petition the defendant demurred in these words: It is not libelous to charge plaintiff with having availed himself of the statute of limitations, and no language is contained in the alleged letter or publication from which injury or damage to the plaintiff can be inferred. The demurrer was sustained, and, the plaintiff electing to stand on the ruling, judgment was entered against him for costs, and he appeals. Affirmed.J. H. Crosby, H. Rickel, and John T. Christie, for appellant.
Chas. A. Clark, for appellee.
Conceding the letter to have been published, was it libelous? Our statute defines “libel” to be “the malicious defamation of a person made public by any printing, writing, sign, picture, representation or effigy, tending to provoke him to wrath or expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, or to deprive him of the benefits of public confidence and social intercourse.” Code 1873, § 4097. “Defamation” is defined by Webster as “the taking from another's reputation.” Odgers, in his work on Libel and Slander, says: “Words which produce any perceptible injury to the reputation of another are called defamatory.” It is “a false publication calculated to bring one in disrepute.” Cooley, Torts, 193. The derivation of the word leaves no doubt as to its meaning. Was there anything in the letter injurious to the good name of the plaintiff, or tending to bring him into disrepute? It is not dishonorable to be indebted to another, nor is it libelous to publish of another that he owes...
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Shaw Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. Des Moines Dress Club
...caused thereby. See Hollenbeck v. Ristine, 105 Iowa, 488, 75 N. W. 355, 67 Am. St. Rep. 306, and Hollenbeck v. Hall, 103 Iowa, 214, 72 N. W. 518, 39 L. R. A. 734, 64 Am. St. Rep. 175. In Hollenbeck v. Hall, 103 Iowa, 214, 72 N. W. 518, 39 L. R. A. 734, 64 Am. St. Rep. 175, a demurrer to pla......
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Nichols v. Daily Reporter Co.
... ... defense under the prohibitory liquor law, to avoid the ... payment of an honest debt. (Hollenbeck v. Hall, 103 ... Iowa 214; Donaghue v. Gaffy, 53 Conn. 43, 7 A. 552; ... Homer v. Engelhardt, 117 Mass. 539; Urban v ... Helmick, 45 P. 747 ... ...
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Haas v. Evening Democrat Co.
...per se to charge one with being deficient in some quality which the law does not require him to possess. In Hollenbeck v. Hall, 103 Iowa 214, 217, 72 N.W. 518, 519, 39 L.R.A. 734, the defendant had published a letter which accused the plaintiff of 'having no other defense, he cowardly slink......
- Hollenbeck v. Hall