Nelson v. Wallace

— This suit is brought by the plaintiffs, husband and wife, for a slander uttered by the defendant, imputing fornication to the wife before her marriage. The answer justified the speaking of the words charged, and pleaded further in mitigation “that it *398was currently reported and generally "believed”.in the neighborhood where the plaintiff wife lived when single, that she had been guilty of the act charged,' and that defendant, believing these reports to be true, and believing further that her brother who was then seeking a nomination for a county office knew of, and had witnesses of, her…