Dewing v. Blodgett

CONREY, P. J.

Pursuant to the verdict of a jury, judgment was entered against defendant in the sum of $5,000 and costs. Defendant appeals from the judgment. Appellant relies upon three points to sustain his appeal. These points are: First, that the demurrer to the complaint should

[102]

have been sustained because the libels did not contain a name by which their readers knew the plaintiff and that, therefore, said libels were not actionable

per se

as to plaintiff ; and that in order to recover damages for such a publication the plaintiff must allege facts or circumstances known to the readers of the alleged libel by means of which the reader was reasonably certain that the plaintiff was defamed by the publication, or allege other facts which showed that plaintiff sustained special damage by the publication. Second, that the verdict was not sustained by the evidence, because it did not prove that the defendant intended to refer to the plaintiff in the libelous articles. Third, that the verdict cannot be sustained because the evidence showed that one Dewey C. Carson and not the plaintiff took and transcribed the stenographic notes in the case of

Blodgett

v.

Trumbull,

in connection with which the libelous articles were published.

Brior to the publication by appellant of the alleged libelous articles there had been tried in the Superior Court of Santa Barbara County an action entitled

Ida Blodgett, Plaintiff,

v.

Grace Sherwood Trumbull, Defendant,

and judgment therein had been entered in favor of the defendant Trumbull. The plaintiff, Ida Blodgett, appealed from that judgment. In the first of said articles published by appellant while said appeal was pending, it was stated that after decision of the action “the court reporter has since manufactured evidence to support Judge King’s decision by making a false transcript in which it was pretended that McFadden testified ‘yes, it was executed the 7th of February, 1923’.” It was further stated that “the court reporter committed a felonious crime”, etc. In the second of said alleged libelous articles, published by appellant during the pendency of said appeal, it was stated that one Griffith, an attorney at law, “persuaded a court reporter to commit the required crime. That crime consisted of the making of a false transcript of the testimony given by McFadden in the Superior Court in Santa Barbara County. . . . What, if anything, is there to prevent the indictment of Johnston and the court reporter of the Superior Court of Santa Barbara County ? ’ ’