Hastings v. Palmer
New York Supreme Court
This was an action of slander, tried at the Oneida circuit, before the Hon. Hiram Benio, then one of the circuit judges. This suit was brought for words spoken by the defendant, charging the plaintiff with an assault with intent to kill the defendant or one Ira Lusk.
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This was an action of slander, tried at the Oneida circuit, before the Hon. Hiram Benio, then one of the circuit judges. This suit was brought for words spoken by the defendant, charging the plaintiff with an assault with intent to kill the defendant or one Ira Lusk. One of the counts charged the words to have been, that the plaintiff had been guilty of an assault upon the defendant or Lusk with a loaded pistol, without imputing the intent to kill - and in this count the plaintiff alleged special damage. The defendant pleaded the general issue, and gave notice of justification. The words laid…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court, Co wen, J.
The proof of special damage was properly rejected. The report which influenced Chappell might as well have been imputed to any other of his neighbors, as to the defendant. To make the offer of evidence complete, it should have been proposed to show in some way that the special injury arose not only from the words in question, but was a consequence of the defendant’s use of them.
The judge also had a right, in his discretion, to disallow the evidence offered in aggravation of damages, at so late a stage of the cause. Strictly, the plaintiff, or party holding the…
2Cited by17 opinions
- Lux v. HagginCalifornia Supreme Court · 1886
- Caldwell v. . New Jersey Steamboat Co.New York Court of Appeals · 1872
- Terwilliger v. . WandsNew York Court of Appeals · 1858
- Marshall v. . DaviesNew York Court of Appeals · 1879
- Lux v. HagginCalifornia Supreme Court · 1886
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