Patten v. Harper's Weekly Corp.
New York Supreme Court
The action is for libel. Defendants Harper’s Weekly Corporation and Hapgood answered jointly and defendant McClure’s separately. Plaintiff demurs to several affirmative defenses set up in these answers as insufficient. The complaint alleges that Harper’s Weekly and McClure’s (corporations) are publishers of the periodical Harper’s Weekly, of which Hapgood is editor and manager.
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The action is for libel. Defendants Harper’s Weekly Corporation and Hapgood answered jointly and defendant McClure’s separately. Plaintiff demurs to several affirmative defenses set up in these answers as insufficient. The complaint alleges that Harper’s Weekly and McClure’s (corporations) are publishers of the periodical Harper’s Weekly, of which Hapgood is editor and manager. Plaintiff was part owner of the Chattanooga Medicine Company, manufacturer and vendor of ' ‘Wine of Cardui,” and was also prominent in the affairs of the Methodist Episcopal Church as a lay member, holding positions of…
1Opinion of the CourtHotchkiss, J.
Instead of the concise statement of facts required by traditional rules of pleading, the phrasing of the several defenses follows so closely the literary style of the “ investigator ” who wrote the *377article complained of as to encourage the suspicion that the latter also drafted the defenses demurred to. The diffuse, rhetorical, argumentative and repetitious form of the pleading, which includes also many mere items of evidence as distinguished from ultimate facts, has materially added to the labor of analyzing the defenses under examination. Stripped to their bare bones the first and second…
2Cases cited6 opinions
- Triggs v. Sun Printing & Publishing Ass'nNew York Court of Appeals · 1904
- Morrison v. . SmithNew York Court of Appeals · 1904
- Bingham v. . GaynorNew York Court of Appeals · 1911
- Fero v. . RuscoeNew York Court of Appeals · 1850
- Jacobs v. Monaton Realty Investment Corp.New York Court of Appeals · 1914
1 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.
3Cited by3 opinions
- Shenkman v. O'MalleyAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1956
- Dolcin Corp. v. Reader's Digest Ass'nAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1959
- Hoeppner v. Dunkirk Printing Co.Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1929