Case ID: ohio-law-abs_2/html/0622-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MACK, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

No. 648
    CRESSON v. LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
    U. S. Appeals, 6th Circuit
    No. 3918.
    Decided May 8, 1924
    715. LIBEL AND SLANDER — Published account of the report of a majority of a congressional committee held privileged.
    Attorneys — Wm. Marshall Bullitt and John E. Tarrant, for Cresson; Geo. Cary Tabb, for Louisville Courier-Journal; all of Louisville.
   MACK, C. J.

Epitomized Opinion

This was an action. for libel by Cresson against the Louisville Courier-Journal The defendant newspaper published an article purporting to be an account of the majority report of the committee appointed by Congress to investigate the esci.pe of Grover Bergdoll, a draft evader. The newspaper stated that the committee report stated that Bergdoll was aided in his escape to Germany by a conspiracy in which Cresson and others named played the leading part. The defense was that the matter complained of was privileged in that it was a publication made in good faith and without malice, of a fair, impartial and correct report of a document issued by a committee of the House of Representatives. The court directed a verdict for the defendant, whereupon plaintiff prosecuted error. In sustaining the judgment of the lower court, the Court of Appeals held:

1, As the publication fairly and accurately stated the substance of the report, it was privileged in the absence of actual malice and not actionable.