Hopkins v. Tate

Citations

• 255 Pa. 56
• 99 A. 210
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 527

Syllabus

<p>Libel and slander — Privileged publications — Candidacy for office —Proof—Reputation—Evidence.</p> <p>1. In the trial of an action for slander where the defense is that the publication was privileged because the plaintiff was a candidate for public office, the burden is on the defendant to establish this fact by competent evidence, and this cannot be done by showing a rumor of the candidacy or intended candidacy of the plaintiff published in a newspaper without his knowledge or authority.</p> <p>2. In .such case the fact that the plaintiff had not published a denial of the rumor is immaterial.</p> <p>. 3. Character and reputation are not synonymous terms; the former is what a man is, the latter is what he is supposed to be. Character may be established or impeached by evidence of general reputation.</p> <p>4. In an action to recover damages for injury to plaintiff’s reputation, in consequence of the publication of a libel, the defendant may offer evidence of plaintiff’s bad reputation in the neighborhood' where the libel was published and at the.time it was published in-mitigation of damages, but evidence of plaintiff’s bad reputation in a neighborhood in which he lived eleven years prior to the publication is not admissible.</p> <p>Practice, Supreme Court — Assignments of error — Statement of question involved.</p> <p>5. Assignments of error not included in the statement of questions involved will not be considered by the Supreme Court.</p> <p>6. It' is not proper practice to assign as error the overruling of a reason for a new trial. The assignment should be to'the action of the court on the trial to which an exception was taken.</p> <p>7. Assignments to the admission of testimony are defective where answers to the questions propounded are not printed. Assignments of error stating counsel’s reason why the rulings of the court are erroneous are improper.</p>