Case ID: yeates_2/html/0243-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Sed per cur.\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

AT NISI PRIUS, AT EASTON,
    OCTOBER ASSIZES, 1797.
    coram, m’kean, chief justice, and yeates.
    Charles Solomon Frederitze against Michael Odenwalder.
    A justification in slander must be confined to the words charged to have been spoken.
    Slander. The words laid, were charged to have been spoken in the German language, and imported that he, (the plaintiff,) ivas a liar and murderer, and that the defendant Avould prove it.
    Plea. JYbn cut. Avith leave to justify.
    The plaintiff proved the speaking o£ the Avords laid, by three witnesses. The defendant examined eight Avitnessos to show, that the Avords wore spoken in the disjunctive, viz: he Avas a liar or murderer, and then offered to prove that the plaintiff had confessed to four persons, that he had either killed or intended to kill a man. Consequently that he Avas either a liar or murderer.
    Mr. Sitgreaves, pro quer.
    
    Messrs. Clymer, T. Ross and J. Ross, pro def.
    
   Sed per cur.

If the plaintiff does not prove the vrords substantially as laid, he cannot recover. The justification must be confined to the words charged to have been spoken, and not to other words. The defendant might with equal propriety, go into the proof that the plaintiff Avas a thief or adulterer, as into the present deviation from the words laid, and the point in issue A\Tould thus be wholly disregarded.

Evidence overruled.

The Avords appearing to have been spoken in boat, and not repeated, the jury found a, verdict for the plaintiff, for 25 dollars damages, and 6 cents costs.