Commonwealth v. Di Silvestro

Citations

• 31 Pa. Super. 537
• 1906 Pa. Super. LEXIS 253

Syllabus

<p>Libel — Malice—Foreign consul — Privilege—Act of April 11, 1901, P. L. 74 — Criminal law.</p> <p>The publishers of a newspaper charged a foreign consul with being a bastard, ignorant of his duties, illiterate, weak, despised, the product of corruption and intrigue; that with phenomenal bestiality he preferred to give shyster legal consultations to whoever might innocently apply to him as the representative of his country, and concluded: “may, at least, the contempt of the conscious crowd mark on the hardened cheeks of these productions of the impertinent favoritism an indelible stamp of infamy.” In this and other issues the defendants wrote and published of the consul that he was a buffoon and imbecile, a swindler, a parasite, a blackmailer, a poltroon, an indirect descendant of royal loins, a man with a brainless head, dishonest, degenerate, an ass who had the good luck of clubbing instead of being clubbed. Some abuses were alleged relating to fees and relating to the expenditure of moneys furnished to the consul for home military purposes. These matters, however, were minor parts of the articles. Held, (1) that the articles were libelous in themselves, and therefore malicious and criminal; (2) that the facts being established by the personal testimony of the defendants, it became a question of law for the court to declare whether or not the communication was privileged; (3) that even if it should be conceded that a part of the articles could be deemed proper for public information, all immunity on that ground was lost to the defendants by the unfair and malevolent character of the publication.</p> <p>Libel — Evidence—Reputation—Good character — Criminal law.</p> <p>In a prosecution for criminal libel where the defendants avow the making and publication of a writing which the law declares to be a malicious libel, evidence of good reputation of the defendants is not material.</p> <p>Libel — Reasonable doubt — Criminal law.</p> <p>Where, in a prosecution for crimi