Colbert v. Caldwell
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Certificate from Nisi Prius. Action on the case for words spoken tending to injure plaintiff’s credit and business. The plaintiff, William Qolbert, was largely engaged in the manufacture of bags and envelopes, and in the printing business, and up to the time of the alleged slander enjoyed a good mercantile standing.
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Certificate from Nisi Prius. Action on the case for words spoken tending to injure plaintiff’s credit and business. The plaintiff, William Qolbert, was largely engaged in the manufacture of bags and envelopes, and in the printing business, and up to the time of the alleged slander enjoyed a good mercantile standing. On the 15th August, 1855, he purchased on a credit of thirty days a bill of goods from the firm of Caldwell & English, of which defendant was a member, amounting to $1,075. On the 21st August, 1855, and before the maturity of the note to Caldwell & English, he had occasion to…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered
by Thompson, J.
It is undoubtedly settled that to charge a person with the commission of an infamous offence, the corpus of which never existed, is, notwithstanding, actionable, “for the risk of a prosecution which it induces shall be compensated in damages.” Per C. J. Gibson, in Deford v. Miller, 3 P. R. 103. And when an indictable or infamous offence is unequivocally imputed in the words used, for -instance, to say of one that he is a thief, or has Committed perjury, the terms imputing the offence being generic and expressive of every ingredient to…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Klumph v. DunnSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1870