Libel

In admiralty practice, to proceed against, by filing a libel; to seize under process, at the beginning of a suit. Applied commonly to the seizure of vessels.

Inpractice. The initiatory pleading on the part of the plaintiif or complainant in an admiralty or ecclesiastical cause, corresponding to the declaration, bill, or complaint. In the Scotch law it is the form of the complaint or ground of the charge on which either a civil action or criminal prosecution takes place. Bell. In torts. That which is written or ridicule, hatred, or contempt. 15 Mees. & W. 344. Libel is a false and unprivileged publication by writing, printing, picture, efiigy, or other fixed representation to the eye which exposes any person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloguy, or which causes him to be shunned or avoided, or which has a tendency to injure him in his occupation. Civil Code Cal. § 45. A libel is a false and malicious defamation of another, expressed in print or writing or pictures or signs, tending to injure the reputation of an individual, and exposing him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. The publication of the libelous matter is essential to recovery. Code Ga. 1882, § 2974. A libelisa malicious defamation, expressed ee either by writing, printing, or by signs or pictures, or the like, tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation, or publish the natural or alleged defects, of one who isalive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, Pen, Code Cal. § 248; Rev. Code Iowa 1880, § 4097; Bac. Abr. tit. “Libel;” 1 Hawk. P. C. 1, 73, § 1; 4 Mass. 168; 2 Pick. 113; 25 Wend. 193; 7 Cow, 613. A libel is a censorious or ridiculing writing, picture, or sigu made with a mischievous intent, 4 Mc Cord, 317; 3 Johns. Cas. 354; 9 Johns. 215¢ 5 Bin. 340; 68 Me. 295. Any publication the tendeney of which {s to de grade or injure another person, or to bring him into contempt, ridicule, or hatred, or which accuses him of a crime punisbable by law, or of an act odious and disgraceful in society, is a libel. 4 Mason, 115; 3 How. 206, 291. A libel is a publication, without justification or ce lawful excuse, of words calculated to injure the reputation of another, and expose him to hatred or contempt, 5 Biss. 830. Everything, written or printed, which re flects on the character of another, and is published without lawful justification or excuse, is a libel, whatever the intention may have been. 15 Mees. & W. 435,