Roberts v. Champlin
New York Supreme Court
Error from the Yates common pleas. Roberts sued Champlin in an action of slander. The plaintiff alleged that he had been sworn and testified as a witness in a suit before a justice of the peace, in which Champlin was the plaintiff and one Burtch was defendant, and that in a coversation respecting the plaintiff and the testimony given by him in that suit, the defendant charged the plaintiff with having sworn false and perjured himself.
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Error from the Yates common pleas. Roberts sued Champlin in an action of slander. The plaintiff alleged that he had been sworn and testified as a witness in a suit before a justice of the peace, in which Champlin was the plaintiff and one Burtch was defendant, and that in a coversation respecting the plaintiff and the testimony given by him in that suit, the defendant charged the plaintiff with having sworn false and perjured himself. There was also a count charging the defendant with imputing to the plaintiff the crime of perjury generally, without reference to any particular suit. On the…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court,
Savage, Ch. J.
False swearing in a cause, unless to some fact material to the issue, is not perjury, and is not the subject of indictment or punishment; and as this class of slanderous words are actionable in themselves only when they impute a crime punishable by law, it follows, that to charge a man with false swearing simply is not actionable, unless reference is made at the time to testimony given wherein the crime of perjury might have been committed. In an action of this nature, where the words Spoken do not necessarily import perjury, the plaintiff is bound to show that he…
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