Weierbach v. Trone
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to the Common Pleas of Northampton county. This was an action on the case for slander by John Troné, and Elizabeth his wife, against Israel Weierbaeh and wife.
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ERROR to the Common Pleas of Northampton county. This was an action on the case for slander by John Troné, and Elizabeth his wife, against Israel Weierbaeh and wife. The words were spoken in the German language, and set forth in the declaration, accompanied with an English translation, as follows: “ Whether we had also heard that such butter was brought to Schropp’s store, in Bethlehem [meaning a certain store kept by a certain John Schropp] Betsy Gauff [the said Elizabeth meaning] brought it there [the said butter meaning] that Schropp weighed the butter and carried it into the cellar, where…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
Unless the charge imported by the words is indictable, the words are not actionable. But it is said, (3 Chit. Cr. L. 994), notwithstanding Hawkins’s definition of the offence of cheating as consisting in " defrauding or endeavouring to defraud another of his known right by some artful device,” yet that no fraud less than a felony is indictable at the common law, unless it affects the public in general, as in selling by false weights, which was said, in Young v. The King, (3 T. R. 104,) to be indictable, *410though the sale were only to a…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Respublica v. PowellSupreme Court of the United States · 1780
3Cited by1 opinion
- Davis v. SladdenOregon Supreme Court · 1889