Peterson v. Morgan
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for slander in accusing the plaintiff of fornication. The declaration alleged, in different counts, three separate conversations in which the defendant said in substance, speaking of the plaintiff, that he heard she had a pair of twins. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Lord, J., there was evidence that the defendant as a physician attended the plaintiff from November 18 to December 4, 1872, when he was dismissed.
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Tort for slander in accusing the plaintiff of fornication. The declaration alleged, in different counts, three separate conversations in which the defendant said in substance, speaking of the plaintiff, that he heard she had a pair of twins. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Lord, J., there was evidence that the defendant as a physician attended the plaintiff from November 18 to December 4, 1872, when he was dismissed. There was no evidence that the defendant uttered the words alleged in the declaration before December 14, 1872, and there was evidence that on that day he heard a…
1Opinion of the CourtColt, J.
The judge permitted the defendant to show that the plaintiff’s general character was bad at the time the defendant uttered the words attributed to him, but ruled that evidence of rumors charging the plaintiff with the same offence, and prevailing in the vicinity before that time, was not admissible as substantive evidence either in bar or in mitigation of damages. Such evidence came in however incidentally on cross-examination, and, at the defendant’s request, the jury were further told that the measure of damages was not what the plaintiff had suffered by reason of the circulation of such…
2Cited by12 opinions
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