Russo v. Howard

This is a motion to strike out the second defense as irrelevant, redundant, frivolous and impertinent. The action is for libel in maliciously procuring the publication of words calling the members of an organization, known as the “ Damned Souls,” “ intellectual morons suffering from precocious senility ” and by innuendo, it is claimed, attributing to them the character of certain notorious youths who have heretofore been convicted of murder. The plaintiff is not directly named in the article and the degeneracy of the persons mentioned was not directly charged to the organization or to the…