Bennet v. . Commercial Advertiser Assn.
New York Court of Appeals
Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered March 13, 1920, affirming a judgment in favor of defendant entered upon an order of Special Term granting defendant’s motion for judgment upon the pleadings and directing a dismissal of the complaint.
1Opinion of the CourtCrane, J.
The defendant, taking a sentence from the case of Foot v. Pitt (83 App. Div. 76), has succeeded in establishing that the complaint in this action does not set forth a libel. The sentence is: “The authorities are numerous to the effect that it is not libelous to charge a man with doing that which he may do lawfully.”
As applicable to the facts of the case this was a correct statement of the law. The publication charged that a property owner had gone to Albany to urge the passage of a bill for the construction of a sewer in front of his premises, actuated by a desire to relieve himself from a…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Triggs v. Sun Printing & Publishing Ass'nNew York Court of Appeals · 1904
- Foot v. PittAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1903
3Cited by32 opinions
- Sydney v. MacFadden Newspaper Publishing Corp.New York Court of Appeals · 1926
- Sweeney v. Schenectady Union Pub. Co.Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit · 1941
- Sweeney v. Philadelphia Record Co.Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit · 1942
- Sharon v. Time, Inc.District Court, S.D. New York · 1983
- Dusabek v. MartzSupreme Court of Oklahoma · 1926
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