Luckock v. Daily News Publishing Co.

Citations

• 74 Pa. Super. 429
• 1920 Pa. Super. LEXIS 169

Syllabus

<p>Libel — Newspapers—Public officer — Privileged communication— Case for jury.</p> <p>A libel may be defined to be any malicious publication, written, printed or painted, which, by word or signs, tends to expose a man to ridicule, contempt, hatred or degradation of character.</p> <p>In an action for libel, the case is for the jury and a verdict for the plaintiff will be sustained, where the evidence is sufficient to warrant the finding that the manner in which the article was published made it libelous, and that the publication had lost its privilege and was in no way justified by the actual facts in evidence.</p> <p>A privileged article may be so published, and the account of it may be so highly colored,'and accompanied by such offensive comments and observations, that the privilege, which would have inhered in a fair publication, is lost.</p>