McClure v. Review Pub. Co.

• Decision Date: 07 April 1905
• Citation: 80 P. 303,38 Wash. 160
• Parties: McCLURE et al. v. REVIEW PUB. CO.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

80 P. 303

38 Wash. 160

McCLURE et al. v. REVIEW PUB. CO.

Supreme Court of Washington

April 7, 1905

Appeal from Superior Court, Spokane County; Geo. W. Belt, Judge.

Action by Anna McClure and another against the Review Publishing Company. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

J. A. Sanders, for appellants.

H. M Stephens, for respondent.

DUNBAR, J.

This is an action to recover damages for alleged libelous articles published of and concerning the plaintiff Anna McClure in respondent's newspapers, the Daily Spokesman-Review and the Twice-a-Week Spokesman-Review. The plaintiffs, on their own motion, amended the original complaint; and, as amended defendant moved to make the same more definite and certain by furnishing or incorporating in it copies of the entire articles in which the alleged libelous matter appeared. This motion was sustained, and an exception taken to the court's ruling. The second amended complaint was filed, incorporating the entire articles complained of. This complaint was demurred to on the ground that it did not state a cause of action. The demurrer was sustained, the plaintiffs declined to further plead, the court gave judgment dismissing the action and for costs, and from such judgment this appeal is taken.

The first error assigned is the action of the court in sustaining the motion to make the complaint more definite and certain. We do not think the court committed error in this respect. An alleged libelous newspaper article, like every other article agreement, or instrument in writing, the meaning of which has to be ascertained, must be construed in connection with and with reference to the entire article, and no intelligent construction can be obtained by a perusal of excerpts or disconnected extracts from the publication. In this case the complaint objected to simply extracted from the articles published certain words and lines which it alleged to be libelous. A glance at the said words and lines, when presented in their proper connection with and in relation to the whole article, shows the futility of undertaking to justly construe these words and lines, segregated from the article as a whole. We do not think that the authorities which are cited by the appellants sustain their contention but that the rule which we have announced is universal. The amended complaint presented four articles which were alleged to be libelous, or, rather, three articles; one of them having been published in the Spokesman-Review, and also in the Twice-a-Week Spokesman-Review. The articles as published were as follows:

Article of December 14, 1901.

' Queen of Burglars.

' Remarkable Charge against Mrs. McClure of the Calispel Valley.

' Arrested White Milking.

'Tacoma Chief of Police Went into the Wilds in Search of Flora Dubois.

'After weeks of hard work by detectives, Mrs. William McClure, who is said to have the stage name of Flora Dubois, and who is wanted at Tacoma on the charge of burglary, was arrested at her little log house in the wild country of Calispel valley, Stevens county. The arrest was made by Chief of Police Fackler of Tacoma, in company with Detective McDonald of the local police force, on Thursday morning. She asserts her innocence.

'She was brought to Spokane yesterday morning by the officers over the Great Northern, her husband accompanying. William McClure, the husband, is a prominent rancher of the Calispel country. After two hours here they left on the Northern Pacific for Tacoma, the woman still in custody.

'Strange and Romantic.

'Strange and romantic has been the history of Mrs. William McClure otherwise known as Flora Dubois, actress and variety girl. Originally from the east, she drifted early in life to the western vaudeville stage, remaining in this career 18 years. She had started it at 12. Sometime during this interval McClure met the actress, was enamoured, and married her.

'For a time Mrs. McClure lived quietly on the little Calispel dairy farm, and then, it is said, the restraints of rural life giew too great, memories of the past crowded in, and she left for Tacoma, where, according to the police and press of that city, she entered on a different career to any followed hitherto--that of a leader and organizer of burglars.

' It is alleged that for a time Flora Dubois--she had resumed her old stage name--was queen over a class of men like these, and that a series of starting burglaries, so well manipulated that detection was found impossible, was the result. Then a clue leaked out, Tacoma detectives got on the trail and began to close in, and it is said the Dubois woman left for the tranquillity of her Calispel home again.

' In the meantime in Tacoma, one of the gang had been arrested. Charles E. Jackson was his name, and when taken to police headquarters and confronted with evidence Jackson weakened and gave away the system. It is said he incriminated with himself and a man named Leckie, the picturesque Flora Dubois, whose then whereabouts was unknown. Jackson is still in Tacoma jail, pending developments in the case. With him is Leckie.

'Hearing she had gone to Spokane, Chief Fackler, of the Tacoma police department came here in person, only to find Mrs. Dubois had gone north. Fackler, too, went north with the above result. Officer McDonald had previously been working on the case.

'The following description of the arrest and particulars is given by Detective McDonald of the local force:

'Arrested while Milking.

" We found our woman amid the pastoral scenes of the Calispel valley milking cows. It was a peculiar scene. McClure claims to have been an editor of the New York Journal at one time, and it was a strange scene to see an actress and an editor far from centers of population in northern Washington, the woman wanted as a professional thief and the man bound to protect her. She did not take the arrest hard, but said she could prove a clear case of innocence. During October and November, when the burglaries of Tacoma were committed, she claims to have been doing a variety stunt in Victoria, B. C. We were accorded permission to make a full search of the house, but none of the missing jewelry could be found. They were living alone in a small log cabin surrounded by stock of all kinds.'

'Mrs. McClure is about 30 years old, of dark complexion and a handsome woman. She is medium height, comparatively stout, with clear-cut French features. She bears up well under the situation.'

Article of December 16, 1901.

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