Jones, Varnum & Co. v. Townsend's Administratrix

Citations

• 21 Fla. 431

Syllabus

<p>1. Under section 3324 of the Revised Statutes of tbe United States, the failure to efface and obliterate tbe internal revenue stamps on a cask at the time of emptying the same of distilled spirits is a felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment. Intent to transport .the empty cask with the stamp on it, or to procure it to be transported, is not an element of the above offence.</p> <p>2. To publish in a newspaper of a person who is a candidate for an elective municipal office that he is “a retail liquor dealer, and we are informed is under indictment for not canceling the stamps on empty liquor casks, the contents of which he had sold,” such person not being under indictment for the above or any such crime, is a libel, and is actionable per se, and is not privileged,</p> <p>3. A declaration, in the usual form, setting- out the publication, and the above provision of the United States Statutes, and alleging that the defendant meant by such publication that the plaintiff was under indictment for the commission of the above felony, is good in law, although it alleges no special damage to the plaintiff.</p> <p>4. Under chapter 3480, Laws of Florida, approved March 5, 1883, pleading over in bar, after demurrer to the declaration has been overruled, is not a waiver of the demurrer, but the judgment or ruling on the demurrer may be reviewed on appeal or writ of error, and no exception need be taken or noted in the lower court to secure such right of review.</p> <p>5. In a plea of justification to an action for libel great certainty of averment is requisite. It must be as broad as, and justify the substance of, the specific charge or publication, its character and imputations. If it does not aver that the words are true in the sense imputed to them by proper innuendo, it is bad.</p> <p>6. Good motives are essential to a justification or exoneration of publishing libelous matter which is true, under the Constitution of Florida.</p> <p>7. Tire language of a publication all