Boucher v. Clark Publishing Co.

Citations

• 14 S.D. 72
• 84 N.W. 237
• 1900 S.D. LEXIS 10

Syllabus

<p>1. Laws 1891, Chap. 58, §§ 1, 7, provide that it shall be unlawful for any person to give, offer, or promise to procure any office or employment to any voter for voting or refraining from voting, making such acts an infamous crime, and punishable by imprisonment, forfeiture of the office to which he was elected at such election, and loss of suffrage for five years. Held, that a complaint for libel, alleging that defendant had published an article charging plaintiff, as a candidate for sheriff, with promising to place men on the jury, for voting for him, and to help elect certain persons to the same office at the next election if they would support him, states a cause of action.</p> <p>2. The action of the court in striking out parts of defendant’s amended answer will not be reviewed where defendant afterwards filed a second amended answer, since by so doing defendant waived all error in the rulings of the court thereon.</p> <p>3. Where in an action for libel for charging plaintiff, as a candidate for sheriff, with having promised to place men on the jury, for their votes, and to support certain persons for the office at a future election, for their votes, plaintiff had testified to no fact not admitted by the pleadings, it was not error to sustain his objection to questions on cross-examination touching such promises to voters, since such cross-examination was not as to a matter presented by his direct examination.</p> <p>4. In an action for libel, where defendant’s manager had testified, as a witness for plaintiff, that defendant’s paper had 800 circulation, he could be asked if it had 800 subscribers.</p> <p>5. The manager could not be asked on cross-examination as to whether at the time of the publication of the alleged libel he had any prejudice or feeling against plaintiff, such question having no reference to anything touched on in his direct examination.</p> <p>6. In an action for libel for publishing an article charging plaintiff, as a candidate for sheri