Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/175/409/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 14:35:51+00:00

Document:
The plaintiff in error sued the defendants in error in a state court of the Washington to recover damages for a libel alleged to have been contained in the pleadings in a suit against him, instituted by them in the circuit court of the United States. The trial court dismissed the action, and its judgment was affirmed by the highest court of the state, which judgment, so affirmed, was brought to this Court by writ of error. A motion being made to dismiss the action or affirm the judgment below, held that there was color for the motion to dismiss, and therefore the motion to affirm could be considered, and as the judgment of the court below did not deprive the plaintiff of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, it should be affirmed.
Motion to dismiss or affirm. The case is stated in the opinion.
The plaintiff in error, Abbott, brought this action in the Superior Court of the State of Washington to recover damages sustained by the plaintiff on account of an alleged libel published against him by the National Bank of Commerce of Tacoma, Washington, and the individual defendants above named.
to whom the loans were made, and, among other things, charged substantially that he was insolvent when they were made.
In the present action, Abbott alleged in his complaint that the statements in reference to him and his financial condition in the other suit were defamatory and untrue; that the defendants not only had no reason to believe them to be true, but knew them to be untrue, and that those statements were not pertinent, relevant, or material to the bank's cause of action.
The defendants in their answer averred that the language referred to was contained in the complaint filed by the bank, and not otherwise; that the court in which that complaint was filed had jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject matter of the action, and that the language used was pertinent, relevant, and material to the issues, and was in good faith believed by defendants to be true, and was true.
"any attempt to deprive him of his rights or his property by any process therein or thereunder is contrary to and in violation of the Constitution and laws of the State of Washington, and of Section 1 of Article XIV of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States."
The trial court, on motion for judgment on the pleadings, dismissed the suit upon the ground that the facts stated did not constitute a cause of action and because the matters alleged to be libelous were privileged.
of Commerce v. Wade, 84 F. 10. We think it requires no argument to demonstrate that the words complained of were pertinent and material to the cause, and the question to be determined is were they absolutely privileged, regardless of whether they were true or false, used maliciously or in good faith? The doctrine of privilege communications rests upon public policy,"
"which looks to the free and unfettered administration of justice, though, as an incidental result, it may in some instances afford an immunity to the evil-disposed and malignant slanderer."
"Bartlett v. Christhilf, 69 Md. 219. It cannot be doubted that it is a privilege liable to be abused, and its abuse may lead to great hardships; but to give legal sanction to such suits as the present would, we think, give rise to far greater hardships."
Abbott v. National Bank of Commerce, 20 Wash. 552.
Among the errors assigned in this Court are that the Supreme Court of Washington erred in affirming the judgment of the Superior Court of Pierce County because the effect of such judgment was to deprive plaintiff in error of his property without due process of law, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; in holding that the United States Circuit Court for the District of Washington, Western Division, had jurisdiction of the suit brought by the National Bank of Commerce of Tacoma; in holding that the libelous matter contained in the bill of complaint filed in that suit was privileged, and in holding that such matter was pertinent and material to the issue in that suit.
This case is now before us upon motion to dismiss the present writ of error for want of jurisdiction in this Court, and, that motion failing, to affirm the judgment below on the ground that the question upon which jurisdiction depends is such as not to need further argument.
"§ 5239. If the directors of any national banking association shall knowingly violate, or knowingly permit any of the officers, agents, or servants of the association to violate, any of the provisions of this title, all the rights, privileges, and franchises of the association shall be thereby forfeited. Such violation shall, however, be determined and adjudged by a proper circuit, district, or territorial court of the United States in a suit brought for that purpose by the Comptroller of the Currency, in his own name, before the association shall be declared dissolved. And in case of such violation, every director who participated in or assented to the same shall be held liable in his personal and individual capacity for all damages which the association, its shareholders, or any other person, shall have sustained in consequence of such violation."
of the jurisdiction of the circuit court of the United States. Where the issue is as to the validity of "an authority exercised under the United States," we cannot review its determination by the state court unless the decision was against the validity of the authority so exercised. As said in Baltimore & Potomac Railroad v. Hopkins, 130 U. S. 210, 130 U. S. 223, "the distinction is palpable between a denial of the authority and a denial of a title, right, privilege, or immunity claimed under it." Clough v. Curtis, 134 U. S. 361, 134 U. S. 369; United States v. Lynch, 137 U. S. 280, 137 U. S. 286; Cook County v. Calumet &c. Canal & Dock Co., 138 U. S. 636, 138 U. S. 653.
"or where is drawn in question the validity of a statute of, or an authority exercised under, any state, on the ground of their being repugnant to the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, and the decision is in favor of their validity."
The authority of the state court to consider and pass upon the question, directly raised in the case before it, as to the jurisdiction of the circuit court of the United States on the bank's suit, was not drawn in question. The contention is only that its decision was erroneous.
"or where any title, right, privilege, or immunity is claimed under the Constitution, or any treaty or statute of, or commission held or authority exercised under, the United States, and the decision is against the title, right, privilege, or immunity specially set up or claimed by either party, . . . or authority."
The plaintiff did specially set up and claim that reputation was "property," and that the ground on which the state court proceeded -- namely, that the alleged libelous matter appeared in a pleading and could not be made the basis of an action for damages, deprived him of his property without due process of law, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
if reputation could be deemed property within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, the state court did nothing that could be regarded, within the meaning of the Constitution, as depriving the plaintiff of his reputation. It only adjudged that the words used in a pleading in another suit could not be made the foundation of an action for damages. If it erred in so declaring, it was an error as to a matter of general law, and involved no question of a federal nature, still less an error which in any legal sense deprived the plaintiff of his reputation. It left his reputation as it was, and only adjudged that he could not proceed against the defendants and by judgment and execution take their property in violation of what the court deemed to be the principles of law governing the case.

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