Taylor v. Chambers

• Decision Date: 20 June 1907
• Docket Number: (No. 357.)
• Citation: 58 S.E. 369,2 Ga.App. 178
• Parties: TAYLOR. v. CHAMBERS.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

58 S.E. 369

(2 Ga.App. 178)

TAYLOR.

v.CHAMBERS.

(No. 357.)

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

June 20, 1907.

1. Slander—Privileged Communications.

Communications which would otherwise be slanderous are protected as privileged, if made in good faith by the injured person in the prosecution of an inquiry regarding a crime which he believes to have been committed upon his property, and for the purpose of detecting the criminal or bringing him to punishment.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 32, Libel and Slander, § 130.]

2. Pleading—Amendment of Petition—Effect.

A petition may be amplified by amendment. Such an amendment, voluntarily made, may cure errors previously committed by the court in the amending party's favor as to the original sufficiency of the pleadings.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 39, Pleading, § 736.]

3. Trial—Right to Open and Close.

A partial plea of justification will not entitle the defendant in a slander suit to open and conclude.

[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 46, Trial, § 47.]

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from City Court of Nashville; H. B. Peeples, Judge. Action by Frank Chambers against H. T. Taylor. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.

Buie & Knight, for plaintiff in error.

J.W. Powell, W. G. Harrison, and Alexander & Gary, for defendant in error.

POWELL, J. An action for slander was brought by Chambers against Taylor. The petition as amended alleged, in substance, that the defendant had said to H. W. Griffin, Samuel Long, J. D. Hutchinson, J. F. Robinson, W. W. Bird, W. F. Matthis, Joel W. Parrish, Willie Lassiter., and Eddie Lassit-er that the plaintiff had burned a certain house of the defendant, thereby intending falsely and maliciously to impute to the plaintiff a felony, the crime of arson. In the fourth paragraph it is alleged that the defendant also tried to hire Long to swear that the plaintiff confessed the crime. In the sixth paragraph it is alleged that on the preliminary trial, at which the plaintiff stood charged with this offense, the defendant under oath publicly proclaimed that the plaintiff had burned the house. In the seventh paragraph it is alleged that the defendant attempted to indict the plaintiff before the grand jury for the offense, but failed. The defendant denied all the allegations of the petition, but set up additionally: "That it is true that in December, 1904, one of his houses, out of which plaintiff had just moved, was mysteriously burned, and all the circumstances pointed toward plaintiff being the perpetrator of the deed; that in good faith and in performance of a private and public duty he made affidavit and had plaintiff arrested for committing said act; that all words spoken by him were in furtherance of the belief, from facts and circumstances known, that plaintiff committed the act, and not from a wanton and malicious mind on the part of defendant, and, although a committal court did not find plaintiff guilty, the facts and circumstances surrounding the whole transaction point strongly to his being the perpetrator; that defendant has never since said committal trial attempted to push in any manner such charge against plaintiff, preferring to let the matter drop against him, merely from his own choice, and not from a belief of the innocence of plaintiff." The defendant also demurred generally and specially; but we do not deem it profitable to report the grounds herein.

There was no evidence as to the communication of the alleged slander to any of the persons named in the petition, except H. W. Griffin, Ed Lassiter, and Will Lassiter. After swearing out a warrant against Chambers charging him with arson, Taylor, in pursuance to directions from the magistrate, went to Griffin, on whose place Chambers was living at the time of the fire, and told him that the house had been burned, and that he desired to get...