Youngs v. Adams

The defendant appeals from a verdict and judgment against him in a slander case. The slanderous words charged were: “You are a liar and a thief, and I have the papers to prove it.” The court instructed the jury that these words, taken in their ordinary and natural sense, charged the plaintiff with the offense of larceny, and that the statement, if made without qualification, was actionable per se. With the plea of the general issue, the defendant filed a notice in the nature of justification, in which'he alleged that he would prove that the plaintiff, while in his employ, defrauded him in…