Ivey v. Pioneer Savings & Loan Co.

• Decision Date: 04 February 1897
• Citation: 113 Ala. 349,21 So. 531
• Parties: IVEY v. PIONEER SAVINGS & LOAN CO.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

21 So. 531

113 Ala. 349

IVEY v. PIONEER SAVINGS & LOAN CO.

Supreme Court of Alabama

February 4, 1897

Appeal from circuit court, Talladega county; George E. Brewer Judge.

Action by M. D. Ivey against the Pioneer Savings & Loan Company to recover $25,000, damages for a libel. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained. Plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

This was an action brought by the appellant, M. D. Ivey, against the appellee, the Pioneer Savings & Loan Company, to recover damages for libel. The complaint contained five counts. These counts, as originally filed, were as follows, with the exception of the words which are italicized, the italicized portions being added by amendment, after demurrers sustained to the original complaint: "(1) The plaintiff claims of the defendant the sum of, to wit, twenty-five thousand dollars damages for falsely, maliciously, and without reasonable or probable cause therefor publishing, of and concerning him, in a letter which it wrote and sent to, to wit, J. E. Stone, at Talladega, Ala., the following matter with intent to defame the plaintiff, viz.: 'The Pioneer Savings and Loan Co., Incorporated 1886, Minneapolis, Minn Sept. 4th, 1895. J. E. Stone, Esq., Talladega, Ala.-Dear Sir We have your report inclosing mortgage and note of Max Jacob. You state that the bill for bringing down the abstract is $5 and inclose receipt for it from M. D. Ivey. To bring this abstract down, the abstracter had to insert three conveyances, and we distinctly will not pay $5 for this service. In other states the charge would be 75 cents, and such a charge as Mr. Ivey makes is simply petit larceny. If you cannot get Mr. Ivey to do work for reasonable figures, do not have him do it at all. A charge of $1 in this case is ample to cover the amount of labor, and we are certain there is no law authorizing any such charge as he has made. If you have paid this bill, we want you to collect $4 from Mr. Ivey for overcharge, and do not ask him to do another cent's worth of work for us again in any connection. Get along without it some way, or pay somebody else to do it, unless he makes the matter right. $5 for three entries on an abstract is about the biggest charge we ever heard of. Allowing your bill at $25 for services, $2 for abstract (which is twice what it is worth), and $2.50 for recording, the total amount would be $29.50, less $14.68, received by you, leaves due you $14.82, for which find our check herewith. You must make Mr Ivey do the square thing in this matter. We also inclose receipt for the two payments from Jacobs. Very truly yours, The Pioneer Savings and Loan Company, by G. D. Emery, Attorney. (G. D. E.)' (2) The plaintiff claims of the defendant the further and additional sum of, to wit, twenty-five thousand dollars, for that heretofore, on, to wit, the 4th day of September, 1895, the said defendant, falsely, maliciously, and without reasonable or probable cause therefor, wrote, and did send the same through the mails to J. E. Stone, at Talladega, Alabama, a letter of and concerning the plaintiff, which letter was in form and substance as follows, to wit: [Here is set out the letter copied in first count.] And said Stone did duly, on, to wit, the 6th day of September, A. D. 1895, receive the same through the mails, and did read the same, as it was intended by the defendant that he should, whereby plaintiff was damaged in a great sum, to wit, twenty-five thousand dollars; hence this suit. (3) The plaintiff claims of the defendant the further and additional sum of, to wit, twenty-five thousand dollars, for that heretofore, to wit, the 4th day of September, 1895, the plaintiff was engaged in business as an abstracter of titles to lands in Talladega county, Alabama; and that, as such, he was employed by one Mr. J. E. Stone, at the request of the defendant, to make an abstract of titles to certain property, to wit, the property of Max Jacob; and that, as such abstracter, he performed the said service, and charged the sum of, to wit, five dollars, for the same. The plaintiff made out his bill for his said services against the defendant, receipted the same, and turned it over to the said J. E. Stone. The said Stone forwarded the said receipted bill to the said defendant, at Minneapolis. Thereupon, upon receipt of the same, the said defendant, falsely, maliciously, and without reasonable or probable cause therefor, wrote a letter to the said J. E. Stone, and published the same, by transmitting it through the mails to the said J. E. Stone, at Talladega, Alabama, where he, the said Stone, duly received and read the same, to wit, on the 6th day of September, 1895, which said letter was in words and figures as follows: [Here is set out the letter which is copied in the first count.] Whereby the said defendant meant by the language, 'And such charge as Mr. Ivey makes is simply petit larceny,' that the said Ivey had made false representations as to the amount of work he had done, and the value of his services as such abstracter in the performance of the said work, for the purpose by such false pretense of having or inducing the defendant to pay more money than it ought to pay therefor; and the said defendant, in the use of the language of the said letter, to wit, 'You must make Mr. Ivey do the square thing in this matter,' intended and meant to insinuate that he (the plaintiff) was acting dishonestly. The plaintiff says that the said charges and insinuations in the said letter that 'such a charge as Mr. Ivey makes is simply petit larceny,' and 'you must make Mr. Ivey do the square thing in this matter,' are false charges and insinuations, and were made maliciously and without reasonable or probable cause therefor, and, by reason of the making of the said charges and of the publication thereof in the manner aforesaid, the plaintiff has been greatly damaged in his said business of abstracter, in the sum of, to wit, twenty-five thousand dollar; hence this suit. (4) The plaintiff claims of the defendant the further and additional sum of, to wit, twenty-five thousand dollars, for that heretofore, on, to wit, the 4th day of September, 1895, the defendant wrote a letter to J. E. Stone, at Talladega, Alabama, and mailed the same to him, which said letter the said J. E. Stone opened and read, as was intended by the said defendant when he wrote and mailed the same to him, and in the said letter the said defendant used this language, to wit, 'Such a charge as Mr. Ivey (meaning this plaintiff) makes is simply petit larceny,' the said defendant meaning and intending thereby to write and publish to the said Stone that the said plaintiff was guilty of petit larceny, or guilty of an act of moral turpitude as great as the commission of the crime of petit larceny, which said charge so made and published by the said defendant against the plaintiff to the said Stone is utterly untrue, and was made and published by the defendant of and concerning the plaintiff falsely, maliciously, and without reasonable or probable cause therefor, and injured him in the large sum of, to wit, in the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, for which he brings this suit. (5) The plaintiff claims of the defendant the further and...