Life Printing & Publ'g Co. v. Field

• Decision Date: 11 December 1944
• Docket Number: Gen. No. 43167.
• Citation: 58 N.E.2d 307,324 Ill.App. 254
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois
• Parties: LIFE PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO., Inc., v. FIELD et al.

324 Ill.App. 254

58 N.E.2d 307

LIFE PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO., Inc.,

v.FIELD et al.

Gen. No. 43167.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, First Division.

Dec. 11, 1944.

Appeal from Superior Court, Cook County; Frank M. Padden, Judge.

Action for libel by Life Printing & Publishing Company, Inc., against Marshall Field, III, The Chicago Sun Syndicate, Inc., doing business as The Chicago Sun, and Silliman Evans. From an order dismissing the action, upon motion of defendants charging insufficiency of the complaint, plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Irving Breakstone, of Chicago, for appellant.

Mayer, Meyer, Austrian & Platt, of Chicago (Jacob X. Schwartz, of Chicago, of counsel), for appellees.

NIEMEYER, Presiding Justice.

Plaintiff appeals from an order dismissing its action for libel upon motion of defendants, charging the insufficiency of the amended complaint on which plaintiff elected to stand.

This complaint alleges that plaintiff is engaged in the business of publishing three community newspapers, having an average circulation of 32,000 copies per issue and doing circular printing; that its office and principal place of business is at No. 5304 W. 25th Street, Cicero, Illinois; that one of the papers published is the Cicero Life, a tri-weekly newspaper which did an annual gross business of $261,232.50 in 1943; that the plaintiff had a good name, credit and reputation and deservedly enjoyed the esteem and good opinion of those with whom it did business and of other worthy citizens of the state, as well as the patronage and good will of a large number of advertisers and persons requiring circular printing, including among its patrons and heaviest advertisers many merchants of Jewish descent and members of that faith owning and controlling business firms and corporations doing business with plaintiff; that between plaintiff and its customers existed mutual esteem, good credit and profitable business relations; that plaintiff's property, affairs and concerns were conducted and managed by directors and officers (none of whom are named), including its president, secretary and vice-president, who along with plaintiff were in high and deserved repute, estimation and credit with the public, and were doing a profitable and increasing business and were then and there daily acquiring and had acquired large gains and profits from the business; that the defendant Marshall Field III, owner and editor, along with The Chicago Sun Syndicate, Inc., and Silliman Evans, publisher, printed and published The Chicago Sun a newspaper of large circulation; that on February 4th, 5th and 7th, 1944, defendants, with the intent of exposing the Gentile Co-operative Association and to impair and damage plaintiff in its business, affairs and concerns, and more especially with its patrons of Jewish descent, and to discourage advertisers, especially those merchants of Jewish descent, from extending their patronage to the plaintiff, and the public from subscribing to and reading its newspapers and from having printing done in its plant, published certain articles (set out verbatim) charging that the publisher of the Cicero Life, meaning plaintiff, caused to be incorporated a nefarious and despicable organization known as Gentile Co-operative Association; that the defendants maliciously and recklessly published said articles of and concerning the plaintiff in its business, and that such publications were understood by the readers thereof and the public as identifying the plaintiff and meaning that the plaintiff was engaged in a conspiracy with Flitcraft, Ferree and Nolen, incorporators of the Gentile Co-operative Association, and others behind it, as ‘fellow conspirators to spread the described propaganda therein set forth over the United States, in violation of the criminal law against conspiracy, seeking to undermine the faith of the people in their leaders, and to cause unrest and lack of faith in democracy among the members of the armed forces, * * * so that when the proper economic and political disintegration had been accomplished, selected persons in strategic positions would, then acting together, seize power and establish their ‘new order,’ to-wit a national socialist or fascist form of government'; that by reason of the text of the foregoing publications and the libel therein contained, large numbers of advertisers, actual and potential, and especially those of Jewish descent and firms and corporations controlled by persons of Jewish descent, of plaintiff's publications and more especially the Cicero Life, and the subscribers and patrons thereof, believed on the reading thereof that plaintiff was identified therewith and was one of the founders and promoters of the Gentile Co-operative Association and one of its incorporators, and that as a result of the acts of the defendants, plaintiff has been and is greatly injured in its good name, credit, reputation and in its business, trade and occupation, and ‘as special damages, it has as a result of said libel suffered in that many advertisers and persons have been hindered and prevented from advertising in the publications of the plaintiff, and especially Cicero Life, and from having printing done in plaintiff's plant and from subscribing to and reading its newspapers, and have declined and refused to have any transactions with the said plaintiff in the way of its business, and more especially persons of Jewish descent, and from all of whom the plaintiff would, have and except for said libel, have obtained great gains and profits,’ and demands judgment in the sum of $100,000 special damages, $100,000 punitive damages, and compensatory damages of $100,000, or a total of $300,000.

The several publications complained of appeared under the following headings: ‘Promoter Would ‘Protect’ Gentiles at $100 a Head. Anti-Semitic Purposes Hidden in State Charter But Opposition to ‘Jewish Control’ is Admitted'; ‘Leaders of All City Groups Blast Gentile Association. Everyone Denounces ‘Screwball’ Promotion Aimed at Halting ‘Rising Jewish Power”; and ‘McMahon Flails ‘Gentile’ Society. Mayor Indignant Over Aims of Group'; and said in substance that an ambitious new scheme, described by the promoters as aimed at getting up to as much as $100 from as many as 5,000,000 Americans, has been launched in Chicago in the form of a Gentile Co-operative Association; that the first application for the charter was turned down by the Secretary of State, but a charter was granted on a new application defining the purposes of the group as promoting various ‘gentile objectives'; that Eugene F. Flitcraft, the organizer, is a director of several printing and advertising firms and was formerly secretary and treasurer of Contemporary Publications, which published the National Magazine for Young Republicans until 1936, when it went out of business; that Marvin Ferree, named as an incorporator living at 915 Carmen avenue, actually lives at 5304 W. 25th street, Cicero, and is publisher of Cicero Life, a community newspaper; that the owner of the apartment building at 915 Carmen avenue says that Ferree never lived at that address; that John M. Nolen, the third incorporator, resides at 316 Madison street, Maywood, and is publisher of the Maywood newspaper New Era; that Flitcraft said he started the movement to ‘halt growing Jewish power’ in the United States; that he expects to step out of the directorship as soon as the movement gets going, and that ‘others are behind it’ and would keep it going; that a hurry-up appeal for funds would be sent out and the recipients of the appeal urged to act fast for the preservation of gentiles; that no more than $100 would be taken from any person and memberships were as low as $2; that everyone who joins will get a copy of the Gentile News, publication of which has not started; that they plan to help exsoldiers, to start a lending pool to help businessmen who might otherwise have to sell out to Jewish interests, to correct the business practice of gentiles, promote a ‘gentile peace,’ with special aid in getting jobs back for gentiles after the war, and promote gentile control of ‘business, social and cultural responsibilities'; that ministers, public officials, labor and civic leaders who were interviewed charged the organization with playing Hitler's game and being a dangerous expression of distorted and un-American thinking, a vicious and dangerous racket, representing the ideologies of our enemies, the Nazis and the Japs, and that the fellows running it should be ‘salted away as traitors to America.’

Plaintiff says that these articles in substance ‘charge the plaintiff with being one of the incorporators and founders of an anti-semitic organization formed for the purpose of opposing ‘Jewish Control’ and ‘to halt growing Jewish power’ and ‘Portect Gentiles at $100 a Head,’' and contends that the articles are libelous per se, or, in the alternative, that plaintiff has sustained special damages by reason of their publication and that these damages are properly pleaded. In support of its contention that the publications are libelous...