Empire Printing Company, a Corporation v. Henry Roden, Ernest Gruening and Frank A. Metcalf

POPE, Circuit Judge.

The appellees, as plaintiffs below, each filed a separate action against Empire Printing Company, appellant, for defamation as a result of a publication which appeared in the Daily Alaska Empire, a newspaper published by appellant at Juneau, Alaska. The cases were consolidated for trial and tried to a jury which returned verdicts awarding each appellee $1.00 compensatory damages, and $5,-000 punitive damages, and appellant appeals.

At the time of the publication involved, appellee Gruening was Governor of Alaska, appellee Roden was Territorial Treasurer, and appellee…