Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-12-20
ISLANDER SUIT WAS TOO
MUCH FOR JURY.
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CONTINUED from rage III
Brown he ought to retract and that
Brown had said Lessen was as deep
in the mud as Drummond was in the
mire. Oscar Valentine also gave
testimony for Lessen.
The defense was a denial and Law
yer Cutter said they would prove the
Cohn-Brown property was not on the
tax duplicate and that Brown charged
negligence, but made no assertion of
any division being made.
Tax Collector l.. NJ. Campbell pro-
duced the books showing the prop
erty had not been entered up as had
been stated. Brown had said it was
queer business and had minated
that Drummond and Leisen knew
something about the tax collection
thereon but he had not heard him
say they had actually divided up the
proceeds.
Mr.. Brown was then called and de-
clared he had made an attack upon
the way things were being run in his
township but he had never used the
words "whacked up" as they were
words not in his every day use OF
language. AS a taxpayer he had stir
red up matters because he thought
something should be done. Every
body knew Drummond was short. he
denied making any statement of any
division being made by Drummond
and Lessen.
Judges Charge.
Justice Fort, in charging'the jury,
said the law was we'll settled in this
state that words alleged to be sland-
erous were those which in their plain
and natural import in connection
with the expression or sentence with
which they we're used impute one
with the want of integrity or, prac-
tically, dishonesty.
In this suit it was alleged that the
defendant had said "Leisen has left
the Brown or Cohn property off the
tax duplicate and further that
Drummond had collected the tax on
it and that they had divided up or
whacked up"
Justice Fort held that in their
official relation to Mr.. Lessen these
words were under the decision of the
Court of Errors %actionable and gen
eral damages could be recovered
thereon. The use of the mere words
themselves when they imputed the
want of integrity were all that was
necessary W T0COV6F tHGTtOu.
The defense, he said, was two-fold.
First, that there was some justifca-
ton for the first assertion as the
property had not been taxed on the
duplicate. The court said this had
been admitted on both sides so that
there could be no recovery for this.
The second clause of the defense
was that Brown did not say what is
~ n rna1 oooinct him Tho nppCfIOn
for the jury to decide was whether
he did say it or not. If he did no,
say it that ended the case. If he did
the plaintiff was entitled to recover
damages therefrom. They must be
satisfied by the weight of evidence
that he had said substantially as the
plaintiff claimed.
The court declared that there
could be no recovery for special dam
ages as zone had been proven in the
case, there being no proof of any loss
of compensation or loss of office.
To allow the plaintiff vindictive or
punitive damages they must arrive at
the conclusion that Brown had said
these words wantonly and with mall
ice and that he had i'll will in utter
ing them. If he knew what the
charge against him was and as some
of the witnesses had testified he then
said he would stand by what he had
said and could prove 1t the jury
might consider the question of punt
tive damages. Brown, however, said
he did not know at that time that it
was charged against him that he had
declared there had been a whack up
and if so then vindictive damages
could hardly be found against him.
The court said it was he duty OF
every taxpayer and citizen to make a
complaint in a case of this sort where
he thought public officers were not
doing their duty, but the proposition
as set forth by the plaintiff in this
case was an entirely different n
and to make a charge as alleged here
was not ones duty.
The jury retired at 3:15 o'clock.
The members of the jury were
John Power, Raritan; j. Edward
Bennett, Cranbury; Samuel Brown,
Louis Heiser, Madison; Edward
Clemens, East Brunswick; George e.
Dey, Augustus Farr, Monroe; Will
lam H. Miller, Woodbridge; Robert
Mayo, William H. Striker, this city;
Renney Petite, South Brunswick;