Sullings v. Shakespeare

Sullings sued Shakespeare, who was publisher of the Kalamazoo Gazette, for publishing two alleged libels. One was claimed to be libelous because describing plaintiff as having performed a surgical operation by removing a “patty tuber” from the “hypogastrium” of one A. B. Smith. . The other contained an account of a ride taken by plaintiff in Kalamazoo written in a style tending to throw ridicule on plaintiff as displaying ostentation, and as not used to such indulgences.

The jury found a verdict for defendant. The case went throughout, and the charge also was based, on the theory that the…