Whitehouse v. Cowles

Citations

• 48 Wash. 546
• 93 P. 1086
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 914

Syllabus

<p>Libel and Slander — Complaint. A complaint for libel setting out the publication of the fact that plaintiff secured a marriage license, attempted to suppress the fact, and could not find the bride, is demurrable for want of sufficient facts, where it contains no inducement or innuendo and it is not alleged that any of the statements published are false; the statements not being libelous per se.</p> <p>Same — Conditions Precedent — Notice to Publisher — Evidence— Sufficiency. Under Laws 1899, p. 101, requiring, as a condition precedent to an action for newspaper libel, the service of notice upon the publisher for a retraction of the publication, an action for libel is properly dismissed, where the only proof that the person served with notice was publisher of the paper at the time of publication consisted of a contract purporting to be signed by him as publisher, by one Y, his business manager, some months prior to the publication, and of two checks signed by him describing him as publisher of the paper, dated six to eight months after the publication of the libel.</p>