Snyder v. Tribune Co.

• Citation: 143 N.W. 519,161 Iowa 671
• Parties: SNYDER v. TRIBUNE CO.
• Decision Date: 25 October 1913
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

161 Iowa 671

143 N.W. 519

SNYDER

v.TRIBUNE CO.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 25, 1913.

Appeal from District Court, Woodbury County; Frank R. Gaynor, Judge.

Action for libel. Trial to a jury. Verdict and judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

Evans, J., dissenting.Sears & Snyder, of Sioux City, and Herrick & Herrick and J. A. Miller, all of Cherokee, for appellant.

Henderson & Fribourg, of Sioux City, and Walter P. McCulla, of Cherokee, for appellee.

DEEMER, J.

A very large part of the record is taken up with the pleadings in the case, which are extremely voluminous. Some of the propositions relied upon have reference to these pleadings, but, instead of setting them out in extenso, we shall, at a proper time, make sufficient reference thereto to elucidate the exact points presented.

The defendant is a corporation conducting a daily newspaper in the city of Sioux City. Its stockholders are J. C. Kelly and his two sons, John and Eugene. At the time in question, one Ellerd was a reporter for the paper; G. K. Larimore, since deceased, was its telegrapher; one Elliott was another reporter; and John Biddison was city editor. Hearing of some escapades in the city of Cherokee and learning from one of the judges of the district court that the grand jury of Cherokee county had returned an indictment against plaintiff, Ellerd was delegated to procure and gather the facts with reference thereto. This he did; Elliott participating therein to some extent by conferring with W. P. McCulla, the county attorney of Cherokee county and a professor in the Cherokee County High School. Elliott, it seems, learned of the indictment of the plaintiff from the judge before spoken of. As a result, the following article was published in the January 13, 1912, issue of the Sioux City Tribune, the paper published by the defendant corporation:

“Midnight Revels Ordinary Resort of Young People--Cherokee is Shaken to Center by Disclosures of Vicious Habits among Persons under Age--Drunkenness is Common--Girls and Boys Mixed in Escapade in Which Drinking is Carried to Point Passing Belief.

Cherokee, Ia., Jan. 13. A series of revels of high school boys and girls of this place, culminating in a ‘Little Egypt’ dance on the stage of the opera house, following a performance of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin,’ has resulted in the indictment of seven young men, the commitment of one girl to the state reformatory and the placing of a number of boys and girls under probation.

The investigation carried on by County Attorney Walter McCulla has scandalized this community. It was found that a number of high school boys and other young men about town had been bringing liquor into the town and staging some high life parties on the steps of the courthouse, in a vacant house and in the opera house.

The story of the jamboree of three young men and three girls in the opera house is told here. It is said that all were intoxicated and that a 16 year old high school girl held the center of the stage with a racy dance. The county attorney was unable to gather sufficient information to verify this party, outside of the fact that all six participants were intoxicated.

Another party of five young men and the same number of young women is said to have been ‘put on’ in a vacant house, from which all went away under the influence of liquor. The skating rink and the courthouse steps were also favorite scenes for the orgies, it is said.

The Offending Parties.

The arrests made thus far have been those of Miss Olive Minor, who has been placed in the state reform school; Roy Wadsley, the 20 year old son of a wealthy retired farmer of Cherokee; Frank Edwards, a 20 year old boy whose father is at the head of the Cherokee Bottling Works; Henry Cooper, a resident of Cherokee; and C. J. Snyder, who is the owner of a drug store at Cleghorn, Iowa.

A third boy, who is 16 years old, pleaded guilty to the charge of selling liquor to minor girls. The youth's mother is ill at the present time and his name would not be disclosed. Wadsley and Edwards were charged with selling liquor to minor girls. The other two youths, against whom are indictments for selling liquor to minor girls, will probably be taken into custody on Monday, says Mr. McCulla. Snyder and Cooper were charged with maintaining a nuisance, the former, it is alleged, has sold liquor at his drug store in Cleghorn, and the latter at his residence in Cherokee.

Three other young girls, no one of whom is over 18 years, and one of whom has already spent some time in the state reformatory are now on probation and will be committed to that institution on their next offense, according to the county officials. One of the three is still in attendance at the high school. No information has been filed against the three girls as yet.

Curfew Law Again.

The investigation has also disclosed conditions that have moved the city council of Cherokee to re-establish the 8:30 o'clock curfew. Some remonstrances have been filed against the ringing by people residing near the local fire house on account of the noise.

It is said the employés of the opera house have been using their keys to return to that building late at night and put on jamborees. The special instance partially disclosed by the investigation of the county attorney, revealed some thrilling facts. One of the girls in the party was about 21 years old, but the other two were 15 and 16 years of age. The employé of the house is about 26 years old, but the other two boys are 16 and 12 years, respectively. The party followed a performance of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’ and the drinking is said to have consisted mostly of beer. All six were intoxicated and the youngest girl is said to have staged such a dance as was never before seen in Cherokee.

Many Intoxicated.

Special instances of drinking on the courthouse steps and in the skating rink were also disclosed. The party of 10 in the vacant house was found out because some of the participants were so drunk they couldn't get away, according to the statements of a resident here.

Nearly all the persons implicated in the affair are under age. Several of the boys and girls attended the high school last fall, but dropped out as the season advanced. Some of them are said to be in school at the present time.

The investigation was the outcome of vague rumors circulated about the town of the stew-bum parties and the complaints of drunken men appearing on the streets. Cherokee is a dry town. It is thought by the county attorney that most of the liquor was shipped in from Sioux Falls.

The town is still in great commotion and further developments may appear before the investigation ends.”

The head lines of the article were written by the telegraph operator, since deceased.

Plaintiff alleged that: “In the printing and publishing of said article, the said defendant intended maliciously to and did charge this plaintiff with having engaged in the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors to the members and pupils of the high school of said city of Cherokee, Iowa, and of selling and furnishing such intoxicating liquors to young boys and girls, who were pupils and students attending high school, for the purpose of getting them to drink such intoxicating liquors, and also charging this plaintiff further with having taken part in certain performances in various places in said city of Cherokee with young boys and girls, and which performances were of immoral character, and did in the said article falsely and maliciously charge this plaintiff, by setting forth said matters in said article, with being a man of immoral character and unfit to associate with young men and young women, and that his influence upon young men and young women, by reason of said immoral and improper acts, so falsely and maliciously alleged to have been committed by him, was of a baneful character. That said article was false, malicious, and defamatory and calculated to provoke this plaintiff to wrath and expose him to public hatred, contempt, and ridicule and to deprive him of the benefit of public confidence and social intercourse.”

The defendant, among other things, admitted the publication of the article, save that it bore the following introduction, “Special to Tribune”; denied that it was actuated by malice in making the publication; denied that it was wholly false as alleged and denied that it was defamatory or libelous; denied that it was intended to or did charge that plaintiff was guilty of the illegal sale of liquors to pupils or members of the Cherokee High School; alleged that the publication was, in all respects, substantially true and that it was printed without malice, for good motives and justifiable ends and simply as a matter of news. As a further defense, the answer pleaded in justification matters which will be referred to in another division of this opinion. And further pleaded that: “* * * Said publication was a report of proceedings of a court of record and was substantially true as published; and that the same was published without malice, with good motives, and for justifiable ends; and that said publication was privileged.” Defendant also alleged: “* * * That with the exception of the allegation in said article as published that the plaintiff had been arrested and charged with maintaining a nuisance in the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors in his drug store at Cleghorn, Iowa, the language in the article did not refer to the plaintiff and was not used, nor intended to be used, in a defamatory sense; and with the exceptions named, in its fair and ordinary meaning and plain and natural import, the language used is not defamatory of plaintiff nor libelous.” Practically all of these matters were repleaded in mitigation of damages; and further, in mitigation, defendant pleaded: “That the said article was printed and published without any unkindness, ill will, or malice towards the plaintiff, who was a stranger to the defendant, and upon what was considered and...