Vactor v. Walkup

By the Court: The plaintiff was one of the Supervisors of Placer County, and the defendant the publisher of a newspaper in the same county. The action is for libel, and was tried before a jury, which rendered a verdict for the defendant; and the plaintiff, having moved for a new trial, which was denied, has appealed from the judgment and from the order denying his motion. The alleged libel related to a sale by the plaintiff and two other Supervisors of said county, under the authority of a special Act of the Legislature, of certain shares of the capital stock of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, which belonged to the county. It was published in the defendant’s paper, and stated that the Act of the Legislature gave to the Supervisors power to sell the stock upon such terms and conditions as they should deem expedient; that under this authority they sold the stock; “and after they had had the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars counted out to them, they then made such terms and conditions that the money never reached the County Treasury. These terms were, that D. O. Mills & Co. should keep the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars four months, and with it buy up our bonds at a discount, and then pay over the bonds to the Supervisors, as so much gold coin at par. Instead of the money being in the treasury here, it never was inside of Placer County, for the Supervisors swapped it off in Sacramento, and a villainous swap it was. Two things appear plain: one is, who struck Billy Patterson? and the other is, who whipped the devil around the stump, and thereby m,ade money?” The statement on [132]the motion for new trial contains none of the evidence, and only the charge of the Court to the jury, which was excepted to by the plaintiff. Whether the charge was correct or otherwise, is the only question raised by the plaintiff on the appeal.

After correctly defining a libel and stating the pleadings, the Court instructed the jury that they are to decide whether the article is libelous, and if it be, whether it refers to the plaintiff—“that is to say, does it charge the plaintiff with corruption in office?” * * * “It is not pretended that the article complained of charges the plaintiff in express terms with corruption in office, or with dishonesty in his official or private conduct; but it is averred that the defendant intended to so charge, and that it was understood by those who read it as so charging. How, this is the meaning assigned to the article by the plaintiff in his complaint, and it is for you to determine whether that is the true meaning of the alleged libelous article. In order to determine this question, you will read and consider the article itself, and also consider and weigh the evidence offered, for the purpose of illustrating the true and real meaning of the alleged libelous article. You are to read and understand the alleged libelous article according to the ordinary import of the language used.” If the charge had stopped here, it would have announced the law precisely as the plaintiff claims it to be. This portion of the charge is certainly not amenable to the criticism addressed to the remainder of it by the plaintiff’s counsel. It submits the whole publication to the. consideration of the jury, in order that they may determine whether the language employed was used in a libelous sense. But the Court proceeds to recite the substance of the publication, and instructs the jury that all that portion of it from the commencement down to and including the words “ and a villainous swap it was,” “cannot be understood as charging the plaintiff with doing anything dishonest or