Meyers v. Berg

WASTE, C. J.

In this action for slander brought by plaintiff against her father-in-law, the jury brought in a verdict in the sum of $25,000, which, upon the denial of a motion for new trial, was reduced by' the court below to $15,000, and judgment entered accordingly. The defendant Stephen M. Meyers appealed. Upon his subsequent death, the executors of his estate were substituted in his place and stead.

Examination of the record discloses that in the latter part of the year 1915 the plaintiff, then a girl of approximately twenty years of age, worked as a domestic in defendant’s household. Defendant’s family consisted of his wife, daughter and son, the latter being about seventeen years of age. While thus in the defendant’s employ, plaintiff studied at night and various other times to fit herself for a position in the business world. In April of 1916 she left the defendant’s employ, and secured such a position. Shortly thereafter, and, as she claims, upon the solicitation of the boy, plaintiff married the defendant’s son. There is no suggestion or intimation of prior improprieties between the young people, nor does the defendant raise or attempt to raise any question as to plaintiff’s character or reputation. After reading the entire record, however, one cannot help concluding that this marriage did not meet with parental approval, the defendant acquiring an immediate and active dislike for his daughter-in-law. As evidence thereof, and as also tending to establish the malice with which the slanderous words hereinafter referred to were uttered, the plaintiff adduced evidence showing that shortly after her marriage with his son the defendant prevailed upon the boy to leave Milwaukee, where he was then living with, his wife, for Chicago, where he might work and live with his family.

[417]

Some weeks later, plaintiff followed her husband to Chicago, where she remained for a period of about six months, during no part of which time was she ever invited to the defendant’s home. Learning that plaintiff was to give birth to a second child in the year 1918, the defendant upbraided her and offered her $10,000 to give up the first child, adding: “I never want to lay eyes on you again.” Plaintiff was then only twenty-two years of age. In November, 1922, defendant made disparaging remarks to the plaintiff as to why her husband had temporarily left her for another woman. Plaintiff testified that on numerous occasions, and in the presence of various members of his family, the defendant had called her a “dirty bitch” — on one occasion charging her with attempting to break up his daughter’s home. There is also testimony in the record showing that in the fall of 1924 defendant referred to the plaintiff as a “kitchen mechanic”; that in 1927 he referred to her as “a dirty, rotten snake”, to whom he would not give a “bite to eat”; and that in March of 1928 he expressed his hatred for plaintiff. These latter statements were made to persons other than members of the family, and were relied on by the plaintiff as showing a continuous course of ill-feeling-toward her which the jury might well consider in determining the malice with which defendant was actuated in giving expression to the slanderous words for which this suit was brought.