Smith v. Gaffard
Supreme Court of Alabama
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Butler. Tried before the Hon. Johk Gill Shorter. The complaint in this case was in these words.: “The plaintiff, Caroline Smith, an infant under the age of twenty-one years, who sues by her next friend, claims of the defendant $10,000, as damages for falsely and maliciously charging said plaintiff, who is an unmarried female, with a want of chastity, by speaking of and concerning her, in the presence of divers persons, in a conversation where…
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Appeal from the Circuit Court of Butler. Tried before the Hon. Johk Gill Shorter. The complaint in this case was in these words.: “The plaintiff, Caroline Smith, an infant under the age of twenty-one years, who sues by her next friend, claims of the defendant $10,000, as damages for falsely and maliciously charging said plaintiff, who is an unmarried female, with a want of chastity, by speaking of and concerning her, in the presence of divers persons, in a conversation where the subject of the plaintiff’s having, previous to that time, been pregnant with child, and having given birth to it by…
1Opinion of the Court
"WALKER, J.
— The complaint claims damages for the false charge of a want of chastity against the plaintiff, by speaking certain words. Those words attribute to the plaintiff past pregnancy, the having had a child, and a miscarriage; and some of them charge, “that she had taken something to make her lose” a child. The declaration avers, that she is an unmarried woman; but not that she was, either at the time of or before the pregnancy, unmarried. The complaint does not negative the cover-ture of the plaintiff at such a time as to make the pregnancy charged an imputation upon her chastity.
That…
2Cases cited6 opinions
- Pickens v. OliverSupreme Court of Alabama · 1857
- Crimm's Adm'rs v. CrawfordSupreme Court of Alabama · 1857
- Bissell v. CornellNew York Supreme Court · 1840
- Kirksey v. FikeSupreme Court of Alabama · 1856
- Commonwealth v. Justices of the Sessions for the County of MiddlesexMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1812
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3Cited by12 opinions
- Roe v. WadeSupreme Court of the United States · 1973
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- Cheaney v. StateIndiana Supreme Court · 1972
- Gentry v. GilmoreSupreme Court of Alabama · 1993
- Trent v. StateAlabama Court of Appeals · 1916
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