Brown v. Nickerson
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Action of tort for slander, by charging the female plaintiff of the crime of being drunk by the voluntary use of intoxicating liquor, by words spoken of her substantially as follows: “ She drinks rum and gets drunk, and she got drunk and laid drunk a week. She is mad with the neighbors because they will not let her have liquor. She will get drunk whenever she can get liquor.” The defendant demurred to the declaration, because it set forth no cause of action.
1Opinion of the CourtMetcalf, J.
By the law of this Commonwealth, (however it may be elsewhere,) it is actionable to charge a person falsely and maliciously with an offence that may subject him to a punishment which will bring disgrace upon him, though the punishment be not in itself infamous. Miller v. Parish, 8 Pick. 385, In that case it was decided that a charge against a woman, of an offence that was then punishable by a small fine, was actionable ; a punishment for that offence necessarily bringing her into disgrace. And that case is decisive of this. For whether the charge, which this demurrer admits that the defendant…
2Cited by2 opinions
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