Livingston v. Reich

Citations

• 54 Pa. Super. 346
• 1913 Pa. Super. LEXIS 66

Syllabus

<p>Slander — Justification—Words charging crime.</p> <p>1. A plea of. justification in an action of slander for words charging the plaintiff with larceny is sustained by proof of the truth of the charge, but not by proof of the defendant’s belief that it was true, nor by proof of the defendant’s belief merely that the plaintiff took the goods tortiously.</p> <p>2. In an action for slander based upon words uttered by the defendant, and charging the plaintiff with stealing cherries, a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff will be sustained where there is ample evidence to warrant a finding that plaintiff had bought the cherries of a boy in charge of defendant’s market stand for forty cents, and laid down a fifty cent piece to pay for them; that afterwards defendant came upon the scene and insisted that the price was fifty cents; that because of the dispute, and not with the intention of stealing the cherries, she took them and the fifty cent piece and went to the market constable and told her story, whereupon the defendant came up and said she was a thief, and had stolen the cherries from his stand.</p> <p>Appeals — Harmless error — Charge.</p> <p>3. A judgment will not be reversed on appeal because of inadvertences and slight inaccuracies in the charge, if counsel did not call the attention of the trial judge to them before the jury retired, so that they might be corrected.</p> <p>Appeals — Assignments of error — Charge—Exceptions.</p> <p>4. Where all the assignments of error are to the charge or to answers to points, and the record shows that no exceptions had been taken thereto, the appeal may be quashed.</p>