The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-27
HaSSett Takes
 Cut In Verdict Counsel Agrees to Accept Re ductiOn of Award From
 $4,OOO to $2,5O0
SUPREME COURTS VIEW
No Question of Priests Liability, But the Jury Award Was Excessive,
 It Finds.

New Haven, Dec. 27.-Counsel for William Hassett, the school commit teeman of Wallingford, filed notice yesterday that they accepted the yer dict of s2,500 in their suit against the Rev. John H. Carroll, pastor of Holy Trinity church, wallingford, for islander. The supreme court of the state had ordered that Hassett either accept a reduction of the verdict of $4.000 given in the superior court to $2,500 or that new trial be ordered.
 The opinion of the supreme court upon the case was received by Clerk Justice Hall, all the other judges con- curing.
 The opinion recounts the state ments made by Father Carroll from the pulpit of his church, said state ments furnishing the basis of Has were included the following:
 This public servant insists, wheth- CT it pleases you or not, in placing your children in an ill-sm cling, filthy and unsanitary building. A self-re- specting American pig would commit suicide rather than spend an hour in that malodorous pig-sty.
 He uses every man and every woman, the school, the teacher and even the pastor himself, If he could, to further his coal business. God help the man, woman or child, pastor this respect! Would he be allowed to if that microbe~infected shack where he insists upon putting your children were not heated with his coal? Were my people to put this fellow on that office again an A. P. A or a north of Ireland Orangeman would deem him too treacherous and un- cl fn ionif mon S. Father Carroll also charged tha, Hassett was guilty of violating the criminal statute governing the selling of supplies by trustees of state tnsti- tutions to such institutions.
 Hassett Not Guilty. The court finds that Hassett was not guilty of violating the criminal statutes regarding the selling of sup. plies as charged by Father Carroll It also holds that Father Carroll had no more right as pastor of the church to make slanderous and defamatory statements than he had as citizen. The opinion says: '"rhe time, place manner and language of the publfca- tion in the case was undisputed. The the very remarkable circumstances of time. place and manner of publica- ton, the incorporate and violent Ian guage contained in the abusive eptthets applied in the writings them selves could, upon the evidence be- fore us, justify no other conclusion than that manifestly reached by the jury. That the publication was ma licious and was made with improper and unjustifiable motives and rem dered the defendant liable in dam ages"
 Verdict Excessive.
 On the question of excessive dam ages the opinion says:
 From the amount of the verdict we think the jury must have failed to understand that the damages to be awarded were practically to be compensatory or at least not punitive beyond the allowance for expenses of litigation. The action of and langu- age of the defendant were unlawful and unjustifiable and were undoubt- edly most exasperating to the plain tiff, yet he appears to have volun- tarily attended the church to hear them repeated, and it does not ap- pear that he has seriously suffered in his reputation"