Title: Burney v. Southern Railway Company

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

165 So. 2d 726 (1964)
James S. BURNEY
v.
SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY.
6 Div. 951.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
June 18, 1964.
*727 Rives, Peterson, Pettus & Conway, Birmingham, for appellant.
Cabaniss & Johnston, Leigh M. Clark and Frank C. Galloway, Jr., Birmingham, for appellee.
MERRILL, Justice.
This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of defendant in a libel suit and from the order overruling a motion for a new trial. The verdict was the result of the giving of the affirmative charge without hypothesis in favor of defendant on the ground that there was no publication of the libel.
Appellant was a railroad conductor assigned to the Norris Yard in Birmingham. D. E. Gwillim was an engineer and appellant's co-worker on the job. Their work consisted of the switching of cars incident to interchange of cars with railroads other than Southern Railway. Appellant turned in the time ticket for himself and the crew showing the termination of the job on July 22 and July 23, 1958, each of which included overtime. Three railroad officials were watching each of the nights in question and a report was sent to J. R. Tipton, Superintendent of Terminals, indicating a discrepancy between the times they saw the work terminate and the times reported on appellant's time ticket.
On July 24, J. R. Tipton wrote the following letter:
"Mr. J. S. Burney: "Mr. D. E. Gwillim:
"Please report to this office for investigation 9:30 AM Friday, July 25, 1958, for falsifying your time tickets on July 22 and July 23.
"You may bring any witnesses or representatives you desire.
Appellee's answers to appellant's interrogatories, introduced by appellant, show that J. R. Tipton dictated the letter to, and it was typed by, Syble Davis Lee.
The complaint was in two counts and defendant pleaded in short by consent, which included the general issue, plea of privilege and a plea of truth.
When the plaintiff rested after presenting his evidence, appellee also rested, asked for and the court gave the following charge.
After giving the charge, the court said:
The three assignments of error charge in different language that the court erred in giving the charge.
Publication of the alleged defamatory words is essential to the maintenance of the action for libel and slander, and there must be a communication to one or more persons other than the parties. Penry v. Dozier, 161 Ala. 292, 49 So. 909; Weir v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 221 Ala. 494, 129 So. 267, and cases there cited.
Appellant contends that the alleged libel was published when it was dictated by Tipton to his secretary. In Ferdon v. Dickens, 161 Ala. 181, 49 So. 888, this court said:
In Berry v. City of New York Ins. Co., 210 Ala. 369, 98 So. 290, the court was urged to limit the statement quoted supra, and it said:
Certain it is that there was publication in the instant case under these two cases.
In 1947, the case of McDaniel v. Crescent Motors, Inc., 249 Ala. 330, 31 So. 2d 343, 172 A.L.R. 204, was decided and the holdings in Dickens and in Berry were limited. The court said:
The McDaniel case is supported by Prins v. Holland-North America Mortgage Co., 107 Wash. 206, 181 P. 680, 5 A.L.R. 451; Biggs v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 5 Cir., 66 F.2d 87; Hellensen v. Knaus Truck Lines, Inc., 370 S.W.2d 341 (Mo.1963); George v. Georgia Power Co., 43 Ga.App. 596, 159 S.E. 756; Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Davidson, 194 Okl. 115, 148 P.2d 468; Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Nance, 165 Va. 363, 182 S.E. 264; Mims v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 5 Cir., 200 F.2d 800.
In the Prins case, the court said:
In Mims v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 5 Cir., 200 F.2d 800, the plaintiff claimed he was fired because he refused to contribute $1.00 to the campaign fund of Senator Taft of Ohio. He asked his friend, Senator Sparkman of Alabama, to investigate. Defendant's president wrote Senator Sparkman at length in a letter dictated to, and typed by, a company-employed stenographer, that plaintiff was discharged for inefficiency and not because of his refusal to contribute to the fund. Judge Lynne entered a summary judgment for defendant and the Court of Appeals affirmed, saying in part:
In Hellenson v. Knaus Truck Lines, 370 S.W.2d 341, the defendant corporation was charged with writing a libelous letter to the plaintiff charging him with falsifying his work time, and the Supreme Court of Missouri said:
We reaffirm the holding in Ferdon v. Dickens, 161 Ala. 181, 49 So. 888, and Berry v. City of New York Ins. Co., 210 Ala. 369, 98 So. 290, but also reaffirm the limitations of these two cases as limited by McDaniel v. Crescent Motors, Inc., 249 Ala. 330, 31 So. 2d 343, 172 A.L.R. 204, that where the letter is dictated by a corporate employee to a fellow corporate employee in the course of transacting the corporation's business and in the line of their duty as employees of the corporation and the letter is sent to another fellow corporate employee *731 and it is in respect to that employee's relations with the corporation, there is not sufficient publication to sustain an action for libel.
It follows that the trial court correctly gave the requested affirmative charge without hypothesis.
Affirmed.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and SIMPSON and HARWOOD, JJ., concur.