118 F.2d 17 - Brown v. Shimabukuro — 118 F.2d 17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 45 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2009 · most notably Barr v. Matteo (1959), Pennsylvania Railroad v. Day (1959)

18 federal appellate · 6 district · 12 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.

¶1 *18Richard E. Wellford, of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

¶2Vivian O. Hill, of Washington, D. C., for appellees.

¶3Before GRONER, Chief Justice, and MILLER; and EDGERTON, Associate Justices.

¶4EDGERTON, Associate Justice.

¶5This appeal is from an order dismissing, on the ground of privilege, a complaint charging libel. The alleged libel is in an affidavit which defendant Shimabukuro executed, and defendant Wattawa filed, in a previous suit.

¶6In that suit Shimabukuro’s wife was seeking a divorce, and Wattawa was his attorney. In the course of that suit Shimabukuro moved for a rehearing on his wife?s motion for counsel fees, suit money, and alimony pendente lite. The offending affidavit was filed in support,of that motion. In the affidavit Shimabukuro made various charges of misconduct against his wife, and various statements tending to show his own poverty and lack of earning capacity. He stated, among other things, that his wife “and her father preferred charges against him before the U. S. Attorney’s Office; that such charges were wholly false and in affiant’s opinion were made for the sole purpose of intimidating and blackmailing him;' that as a result of the persistent litigation against him by plaintiff and her father and the preferment of these ’false charges, and of the notoriety and publicity, and certain race feeling, which their litigation and actions have caused, and by reason of the severe financial reverses which he has sustained, affiant has suffered great mental anguish, and is unable intelligently and consistently to carry on any business or occupation, 'even if he should be able to find the same.” “Her father,” referred to in the affidavit, is the present plaintiff. He alleges that the charge of blackmail was false and was intended to injure him.

¶7 In this jurisdiction, among others, 'statements in pleadings and affidavits are absolutely privileged if they have enough appearance of connection with the case in which they are filed so that a reasonable- man might think them relevant. They need not be relevant in any strict sense.1 A reasonable man might think that the statements of the defendants regarding the plaintiff were relevant, for they had some appearance of connection with the questions what the wife deserved, what her motives were in bringing the divorce suit, and what the husband could pay, questions which might influence a court’s discretion in fixing alimony. They were therefore privileged,' and the complaint was rightly dismissed.

¶8Affirmed.