Wood v. Boyle

Citations

• 177 Pa. 620
• 35 A. 853
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 1024

Syllabus

<p>Libel — Character—Libelous publication per se.</p> <p>The following publication is libelous in itself: “ W., the variously notorious young Napoleon of politics and pipe lines, will assemble his small brood at Warren this morning, and together vote on the proposition to turn over the Producers’ Oil Company’s real pipe line to the refiners and exporters doing business as the fake United States Pipe Line, a concern that exists on paper and subsists on wind. Mr. W. has accomplished some surprising things in his day. Without a following in politics, he has set up a political boss; without brains or capital or credit, he has appeared at the head of a gigantic business enterprise requiring liberal bank balances and a large mental endowment. He never yet has succeeded in anything he has undertaken involving the peace and prosperity of the community, for the excellent reason that he is invariably associated with movements that ought not to succeed. We dare say that his scheme to steal a pipe line from the poor producers in order to give it to the opulent refiners and arrogant exporters masquerading as the United States Pipe Line, will fail, as it properly should.”</p> <p>Libel — Privileged communication.</p> <p>A publication to the effect that the manager of a pipe line, engaged in a business of a public character, had set himself up as apolitical boss, without brains or capital or credit, and that he had entered into a scheme to steal a pipe line from the poor producers in order to give it to the opulent refiners, impeaches'the private, individual and personal character of the manager, and not his official character, and therefore it is not a privileged communication.</p> <p>Libel — Injurious publication as to character.</p> <p>Any publication injurious to the social character of another, and not shown to be true, or to have been justifiably made, is actionable as a false and malicious libel.</p> <p>Practice, Q. P. — Service of process — Privilege from, arrest — Attendan