Leghorn v. Review Publishing Co.

Citations

• 31 Wash. 627
• 72 P. 485
• 1903 Wash. LEXIS 680

Syllabus

<p>LIBEL-TRUTH AS A DEFENSE.</p> <p>In a civil action of slander or libel, the truth of the matter published is a complete defense.</p> <p>SAME — VARIANCE.</p> <p>In an action for libel on account of a newspaper article charging plaintiff with abstracting money from a “special postal fund”, evidence that the fund was really a “deposit made with the postmaster, as a cash bond” by a newspaper to secure the payment of postage as required by law would not constitute such a variance as to invalidate the defense set up that the alleged libelous matter was true.</p> <p>SAME-SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE*</p> <p>Where there is no direct chárge in a publication that plaintiff committed embezzlement in abstracting funds belonging to another for his own private use, but merely a statement of the facts, it would not be incumbent on defendant, in sustaining the truth of the charge, to prove all the elements of the crime of embezzlement.</p>