Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/91462/nalle-vs-oyster
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 04:26:30+00:00

Document:
The practice of bills of exceptions is statutory under the Statute of Westminster, 2, 13 Edw. I, c. 31, which prevailed in Maryland and was continued in force in the District of Columbia by the Act of March 3, 1901, except as superseded by the Code, established by that act.
Error appearing on the face of the record may be assigned as ground for reversal, although no exception be taken; nor is the function of an exception confined to the trial of the action, but extends to all the pleas, challenges and evidence.
This practice was not modified by the Code, nor has it been by any rules of practice established under it; there is no provision giving the right to take exceptions on rulings other than those made in the course of the trial, except as based on the Statute of Westminster; nor does any rule of court require an exception to be taken in order to preserve rights of a plaintiff against whose declaration a demurrer has been sustained.
Section 1533 of the Code applies only where the demurrer has been overruled; it has no bearing upon a case where the demurrer has been sustained.
Ordinarily malice is to be implied from the mere publication of a libel, and justification or extenuation must proceed from the defendant; but where the communication is privileged, the burden is on the plaintiff to prove malice. White v. Nichols, 3 How. 266.
Allegations of malice, falsehood, and want of probable cause in issuing a libel are of fact, and are necessarily admitted by a demurrer.
The issue joined upon a demurrer to one count of a declaration is legally distinct and separate from the issue joined upon a demurrer to another count; nothing can be imported from one count to the other, nor can a judgment be based upon surmise that a matter referred to in one count is the same as that referred to in another.
If the parties in the former action be the same as in the present, every matter and question of fact necessarily involved in the consideration and determination of the former issue is conclusive upon the present. Southern Pacific Railroad v. United States, 168 U. S. 1 , 168 U. S. 48 . A judgment denying the petition in an action for mandamus to compel reinstatement of a public school teacher in which the defendants, members of the Board of Education, pleaded that the petitioner was not sufficiently qualified as a teacher and the court held this was justification of the dismissal is res judicata as to that question in a suit for libel subsequently brought by the petitioner against the same defendants for the statement made in such pleading.
A statement as to the qualifications of a teacher in the public schools made by members of the Board of Education in their answer to a petition for mandamus to reinstate her after dismissal is privileged, and if made without malice and with probable cause, is not actionable.
Such a statement cannot be held in an action for libel to have been made without probable cause if the court has held in another proceeding that the defendants were justified in making it.
No civil action lies for a conspiracy unless there be all overt act that results in damage to the plaintiff.
Publication of a privileged statement in an action as an essential part of a pleading by several defendants members of an official body held in this case not to be an overt act of a conspiracy.
The facts, which involve the practice of bills of exceptions in the District of Columbia and the extent to which statements made by members of a Board of Education in regard to qualifications of a school teacher are privileged, are stated in the opinion.
The declaration contains two counts, the first of which avers that the plaintiff was a teacher and a member of the body of teachers in the public schools of the District of Columbia, and that the defendants, without probable cause, but contriving and maliciously intending to injure plaintiff in her character and reputation as a school teacher, wrongfully and maliciously composed and published and filed in the clerk's office of the Supreme Court of the District, as their answer in a legal proceeding wherein they and others composing the board of education were named as defendants, a certain false, scandalous, and defamatory libel concerning the plaintiff in respect of her profession, the purport of which was that the defendants and others composing the board of education found upon examination that the plaintiff "was not sufficiently qualified in all respects to continue to teach" in the public schools, but was "deficient in the necessary academic and pedagogic equipment of a competent teacher," so that the board of education were unable lawfully to continue her in employment.
alleged in the libel were false, all of which was done in pursuance of the alleged unlawful agreement and conspiracy; that thereby the plaintiff was prevented from securing a fair and impartial hearing in the mandamus proceedings, was prevented from being reinstated to her office as a member of the body of teachers of the public schools and receiving the emoluments thereof, and has been greatly injured in her good name and character, etc.
To the first count, defendants interposed a demurrer upon the ground that the alleged libelous matter was privileged. The demurrer was sustained.
To the second count, defendants filed two pleas. Of these, the first sets up the proceedings and judgment in the supreme court in the case of The United States of America ex Rel. Mary E. Nalle, Relator v. George W. Baird and others, Respondents, * on plaintiff's petition for a writ of mandamus to restore her to the rolls as a teacher (being the same proceeding in which the alleged libelous matter was filed as the answer of the board of education), and avers that afterwards, by the consideration and judgment of the court, and upon an issue necessarily involved in the cause and litigated therein between the parties and identical with the causes of action herein given, it was ordered that the writ of mandamus be, and it was thereupon, denied, as by the record appears, a copy of which is attached to the plea and made a part of it.
"and upon a matter material, relevant, pertinent, and necessarily involved in said cause and litigated therein between the said parties set up the identical matters and writings complained of in the present suit, and thereupon set up in said answer and as a response to the allegations of said petition the following writing upon which this present suit is based, to-wit,"
(here repeating the alleged libel); that such proceedings were thereafter had in the action of mandamus that, by the consideration and judgment of the court, and upon an issue necessarily involved in the cause litigated therein between the parties, it was ordered that the writ of mandamus be and it was denied and the petition dismissed, as by the record appears, a copy of which is attached to and made a part of the plea, which judgment still remains in full force, etc., concluding with a verification.
To both pleas the plaintiff demurred. Her demurrers were overruled, and as she elected to stand upon them, judgment final was entered against her.
The Court of Appeals of the District affirmed the judgment (36 App.D.C. 36), and the present writ of error was sued out.
interposed to it on the ground that the alleged libelous matter was privileged, and whether res judicata or privilege was well pleaded to the second count.
The court of appeals declined to go into the question of privilege, ignoring the first count because no exception was taken by the plaintiff to the ruling of the court sustaining the demurrer thereto, and ignoring the question of privileged communication raised by the second plea to the second count because the judgment against the plaintiff on that count could be sustained on the plea of former adjudication.
"the exception be not found in the roll, and the plaintiff show the written exception, with the seal of the justices thereto put, the justice shall be commanded to appear, etc., and if he cannot deny his seal. they shall proceed to the judgment according to the exception,"
"This [ i.e., an exception taken under the statute of Westminster 2] extendeth not only to all pleas dilatory and peremptory, etc., and (as hath been said) to prayers to be received, oyer of any record or deed, and the like, but also to all challenges of any jurors, and any material evidence given to any jury, which by the court is overruled."
And see Defiance Fruit Co. v. Fox, 76 N.J.L. 482, 489.
462; Wilson v. Merryman (1877), 48 Md. 328, 338; Lee v. Rutledge (1878), 51 Md. 311, 318; Davis v. Carroll (1889), 71 Md. 568.
By the "Act to Establish a Code of Law for the District of Columbia," approved March 3, 1901, 31 Stat. 1189, c. 854, Congress enacted that the common law, and all British statutes in force in Maryland on the 27th day of February, 1801, should remain in force except so far as inconsistent with or replaced by some provision of the Code. We find nothing in the Code, or in the rules of practice established under it, to require an exception in order that an error apparent upon the record may be reviewed. Secs. 71 and 73 pertain to the taking of exceptions to rulings made during trial in the supreme court. There seems to be no section that in terms recognizes a right to take exceptions on rulings other than such as are made in the course of the trial, unless this right follows from the adoption of the statute of Westminster as being among the "British statutes in force in Maryland," etc.
"power to prescribe what part or parts of the proceedings in the court below shall constitute the record on appeal, except as herein otherwise provided, and the forms of bills of exceptions, and to require that the original papers be sent to it instead of copies thereof, and generally to regulate all matters relating to appeals, whether in the court below or in said Court of Appeals."
to be taken in order to preserve the rights of a plaintiff against whose declaration, or a count thereof, a demurrer has been sustained. Rules 47 and 48 of the Supreme Court relate to bills of exceptions. And Rules 4 and 5 of the Court of Appeals relate to the form of the bills. There is nothing in these that touches upon the present point.
Sec. 1533 of the District Code provides that, in all cases where a demurrer to a declaration or other pleading shall be overruled, the party demurring shall have the right to plead over, without waiving his demurrer. This is obviously designed to modify the former rule that, where, after demurrer overruled, leave was given to plead, and the demurring party pleaded to the pleading demurred to, he waived the demurrer, and took it out of the record, so that it did not appear in the judgment roll. Young v. Martin, 8 Wall. 354, 75 U. S. 357 ; Stanton v. Embrey, 93 U. S. 548 , 93 U. S. 553 ; Del., Lack. & West. R. Co. v. Salmon, 39 N.J.L. 299, 301. The section has no bearing upon the case where a demurrer is sustained.
existed in the proceedings before a court, and although such court may have been the proper authority for redressing the grievance presented to it; that proof of express malice in a pleading filed in any such proceeding will render the pleading libelous and actionable, and that, "in every case of a proceeding like those just enumerated, falsehood and the absence of probable cause amount to proof of malice."
The defendants, having demurred to the count in question, necessarily admit the truth of the facts stated in it so far as they are well pleaded. Among the facts so pleaded are malice, falsehood, and the want of probable cause, and the averment of these facts is not negatived or qualified by anything else that appears in the count. The count does not even show that the alleged libelous matter was pertinent or material to the issue, for it does not show the nature of the proceeding, nor what was the issue, nor that the plaintiff was a party to it.
in the former action be the same as in the present, then every matter and question of fact and of law that was necessarily involved in the consideration and determination of the former issue shall be conclusive upon the present. Southern Pacific Railroad v. United States, 168 U. S. 1 , 168 U. S. 48 , and cases cited.
"not sufficiently qualified in all respects to be competent to continue to teach, but was deficient in the necessary academic and pedagogic equipment of a competent teacher,"
so that the respondents were unable lawfully to continue employing her.
"It was not necessary that the board should find that she was lacking in the academic and pedagogic equipment of a competent teacher if they found generally that she was not qualified to teach in the public schools."
The argument now seems to be that the "necessary academic and pedagogic equipment" is not synonymous with the "sufficient qualifications" of a teacher. This, we think, is a distinction without a difference, and the Court of Appeals correctly held that both pleas to the second count were good as setting up a former adjudication of the identical matters included in the second count of the declaration.
Upon the question of privilege raised by the second plea the Court of Appeals thought it unnecessary to pass. Strictly, this is true, for if the alleged cause of action is concluded by a former adjudication, it is immaterial whether the cause of action is, in itself, well founded.
However it is not out of place to say that it cannot be doubted that the second count of the declaration, taken in connection with the second plea thereto, shows a situation that clearly renders the subject matter of the alleged libelous answer to have been privileged.
These pleadings show that, upon the plaintiff's own application for a mandamus, the defendants, being the board of education, were required to show why they had dismissed her. They showed it by averring that, upon examination, they had ascertained her to be lacking in the qualifications of a teacher, and had dismissed her accordingly.
The insistence is that even such a defense, if made with malice and without probable cause, may be the subject of an action of libel. The rule laid down in White v. Nicholls, 3 How. 266, 44 U. S. 290 , is to the effect that it is not to be deemed malicious unless found to be false, as well as without probable cause, and, upon the face of the record, this averment respecting the plaintiff's dismissal cannot be deemed to be false or to have been made without probable cause, for it is shown to have been sustained as true by the judgment of the court. It will thus be seen that the admitted fact of the former adjudication carries with it an admission of the facts necessary to show the privilege likewise.
upon which plaintiff in error relies. Mott v. Danforth, 6 Watts 304; Wildee v. McKee, 111 Pa. 337; Van Horn v. Van Horn, 56 N.J.L. 318; Verplanck v. Van Buren, 76 N.Y. 247, 259. To which may be added Brennan v. United Hatters, 73 N.J.L. 729, 742, and cases therein cited.
Now, in the second count of the declaration, no overt act is charged except the filing of the alleged libelous matter as a part of the defendants' answer in the mandamus action. The only damage alleged to have been suffered is that which proceeded from the publication of this libel. And since, as the record shows, the alleged libel was an essential part of a pleading filed in a former proceeding between the parties herein, which by the judgment was determined to be true, and since therefore the alleged libel was privileged, and thus not actionable, it follows plainly enough that a conspiracy to publish it is not actionable.
It results that, so far as the judgment of the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court in overruling the plaintiff's demurrers to the first and second pleas filed by the defendants to the second count of the declaration, the judgment should be affirmed. But so far as the judgment sustained the defendants' demurrer to the first count of the declaration, it should be reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion. Under the circumstances, however, the defendants should have leave to plead to the first count, by traverse or otherwise. D.C.Code, § 1533; United States v. Boyd, 15 Pet. 187, 40 U. S. 209 .
* See United States ex Rel. Nalle v. Hoover, 31 App.D.C. 311.

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