Homer v. Engelhardt

Decided May 8, 1875

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1875-05-08

Tort for libel. The declaration was as follows: “ And the plaintiff says the defendant caused to be published in a newspaper called the Boston Volksblatt, printed in the German language, published in Boston in the County of Suffolk, on September 26,1873, a false and malicious libel concerning the plaintiff, a copy of which is hereto' annexed as follows s ‘ Dem deutschen Publicum zur Nachricht dass der Wirth Valentine Homer, 1863 Washington Str. um einer gerechten Forderung…

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Decided 1875-05-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently December 1954

1 federal appellate · 1 district · 15 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Endicott, J.

¶1No action can be maintained in this Commonwealth for the price of liquor sold in violation of law. St. 1869, c. 415, § 63. If such action is brought, it is the right of the defendant to set up in his answer this provision of thp statute. It is a perfectly legitimate and legal defence, and stands as other defences stand, which the law interposes to' defeat what, under other circumstances, would be a just demand.

¶2This publication does not charge that the plaintiff falsely or even unsuccessfully set up as a defence the existing prohibitory law. The gist of the charge is simply that he did set up such a defence. The plaintiff having the right to make this defence, it is not libellous to publish the statement that he had done so. The demurrer was rightly sustained in the court below.

¶3Judgment for the defendant affirmed.