Wetherby v. Retail Credit Co.

Appellants, claiming they had been libelled by the appellee, a mercantile credit rating agency, by matter set out in reports to its customers, sued to recover damages. The jury returned a verdict for the credit agency and, in their appeal to this Court, the claimants urge that Judge Shook erred twice in her charge to the jury — first, in not instructing that since the alleged libel-ant had not pleaded justification “there is a legal presumption of falsehood which arises upon proof of the publication of the defamatory matter; and the jury is bound by this presumption, that the defamatory…