Withers v. Thornton
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of District of Columbia
Action on the case for a libel which charged that the plaintiff’s patent for an improvement in winged gudgeons, was a gross imposition, and the plaintiff an impostor.
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Action on the case for a libel which charged that the plaintiff’s patent for an improvement in winged gudgeons, was a gross imposition, and the plaintiff an impostor. The affidavit to hold to bail, did not aver the charge to have been made either falsely or maliciously; nor that any damage has resulted to.the plaintiff exclusively, from the libel charged in the declaration; but that the damage, of which he complains, resulted from that and other publications, and verbal denunciations, “ together with certain other letters, handbills, and publications of the said Thornton,” so that it does not…
1Opinion of the Court
The Court [nem. con.) refused to require the defendant to give special bail. In ordinary cases of libel, special bail is not required without some special reason other than the publication *117of the libel itself, such as non residence of the defendant, or the like. See Norton v. Barnum, 20 Johns. 337; Clason v. Gould, 2 N. Y. T. R. (Caines,) 47; Van Vetchen v. Hopkins, 2 Johns. 293; Barnes’s Notes, 79, 80, 108; Chetwin v. Venner, 1 Sid. 183; Marquis of Dorchester'’s case, 2 Mod. 215.
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Van Vechten v. HopkinsNew York Supreme Court · 1807
- Norton v. BarnumNew York Supreme Court · 1823