Whittaker v. McQueen

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Hobson

Reversing.

T. J. McQueen brought this suit against H. M. Whittaker to recover damages for slander, the words charged being these: “Jeff McQueen has stolen my father’s hogs, and I can prove it. He hauled them in on a sled; for I tracked the sled to his house, and searched all around his house, and found that the sled did not go any farther.” Whittaker, in his answer, in one paragraph denied speaking the words. In another paragraph he pleaded, in effect, that the words were true. The court required him to elect whether he would stand upon the first or the…