Court Opinion

ID: 9651648
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:30:01.494808+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:37.127041
License: Public Domain

RUTLEDGE, Associate Justice
(dissenting).
Assuming that a cause of action was stated, as to which I express no opinion, I think the evidence was sufficient to put the defendant to proof of its denial of publication.
The rule that the contents of a document, purporting to be a particular person’s, are not of themselves sufficient evidence of genuineness, is based on two principles: (1) that other, and better, evidence generally is available to prove authorship; (2) the danger that “too many would be found to take fraudulent advantage of this rule.” 4 Wigmore, Evidence (2d ed. 1923) § 2148. But, as to the latter, there is also “danger of abuse in the opposite direction” (Id., § 2149) and, as to the former, there are situations in which other evidence is not available. In such a case, the first reason for the rule fails, and the contents become the best, in fact the only available, evidence of authorship. When this is true, evidence that the defendant did not publish the docu*838ment generally would be within his peculiar knowledge and the situation, therefore, such as to require him to come forward with it. The rule is not invariable and in special circumstances the contents may be used as evidence of authorship or publication, particularly when they relate to other facts which, when admitted or proved, serve to identify the person named in the document as author. Cf. 4 Wigmore, Evidence (2d ed. 1923) §§ 2148-2150.
In the case of printed matter, the document itself generally contains no evidence of authorship other than its contents. Nothing in the record shows that the “tear sheet” contained a printer’s label or any other means of identifying the printer, and through him the author. The article contained not only defendant’s name, repeated in four places, but advertising solicitation for “Foot-Joy” shoes, together with specific mention of the plaintiff as prospective customer. It therefore identified defendant by name, by the general description of his business, by reference to the particular product in which he dealt, and it solicited business for the defendant and for that product. There was no indication of the manufacturer’s identity or that the advertisement was issued by the. manufacturer. The clear inference from the contents was that the defendant mailed the sheet. Nine out of ten persons, and possibly the tenth, on receiving such a document through the mails would assume that defendant had sent it. Furthermore, these facts were verified by statements in defendant’s plea, which we may consider insofar as they are admissions, though we may not consider his denials. Defendant admits that it was engaged in retailing shoes in Washington and that “Foot-Joy” shoes were sold by it. To this extent its plea bears out the identification of defendant by the contents of the tear sheet, and made unnecessary production of proof by plaintiff to establish these facts. When the verdict was directed, therefore, the evidence, together with admissions in the pleadings, had established that defendant was a retail shoe dealer in Washington, selling “Foot-Joy” shoes, and that the tear sheet advertising this product and soliciting trade in it at defendant’s store was sent through the mails and received at the intended address. Furthermore, there was nothing in the contents or in the advertising matter to indicate that another person was interested in the business, the product, the advertising, or having it distributed.
Under these circumstances, the natural and normal inference is that the sheet was mailed by the defendant. It is not customary or usual for strangers to advertise gratuitously another’s business or product in a manner which involves, as this did, very considerable expense. According to common experience, that is done generally by the owner or by another at his procurement. “National advertising” is an apparent exception, but the usual manner in which that is done is by indicating — and emphasizing— the name of the manufacturer, with or without the local dealer’s name. Unless the mere mention of “Foot-Joy” shoes in the sheet, which did not mention or purport to be made on behalf of the manufacturer or anyone other than the defendant, can be taken as rebutting the clear inference created by the entire remaining contents and admitted facts, that inference would appear to be, if not the only, certainly a reasonable, one to make from them. If it was reasonable, the jury should have been allowed to make or refuse to make it, providing defendant did not succeed in rebutting it by his proof.
In Saenger Amusement Co. v. Murray, 1922, 128 Miss. 782, 91 So. 459, relied upon by the majority, several inferences were possible, equally consistent with that which the plaintiff insisted the jury should be permitted to draw. The decision held that the advertisement could not be admitted to prove that plaintiff was an employee of defendant, not that its contents did not prove authorship.
In my opinion, the judgment should be reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.