Layton v. Harris
Superior Court of Delaware
This was an action on the case for a libel against the defendant in the form of circular letters, addressed to divers citizens of Sussex county, each respectively, informing them that money had been deposited with the defendant to be paid over to them. The libel was in this form:— “Confidential circular.
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This was an action on the case for a libel against the defendant in the form of circular letters, addressed to divers citizens of Sussex county, each respectively, informing them that money had been deposited with the defendant to be paid over to them. The libel was in this form:— “Confidential circular. The committee appointed to superintend the appropriation of the whig fund in the, city of Baltimore, has re-1 ceived information that you are prevented from voting the whig ticket, from pecuniary embarrassments. We hereby inform you that one hundred dollars has been remitted to you through…
1Opinion of the Court
The Court:
Booth, Chief Justice
charged the jury:— 1. A libel is a malicious publication in printing, writing, signs or pictures, imputing to another something which has a tendency to injure his reputation; to disgrace or degrade him in society, lower him in the esteem and opinion of the world, or bring him into public hatred, contempt or ridicule. (2 Harr. Rep. 431-3.)
This paper is a libel. It imputes, 1st. An illegal use of money for the purpose of influencing voters, and represents Layton as the agent for that purpose, of a committee in Baltimore. (Digest, 189, § 24.) |2d. It imputes by the…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Rabinovich v. Liberty Morocco Co.Supreme Court of Delaware · 1924
3Cited by1 opinion
- Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. American Legacy FoundationSupreme Court of Delaware · 2006