Noonan

This litigation is the detritus of the Republican primary election for the office of Representative of the 25th Congressional District in June of 1962.

Plaintiff’s original complaint was entitled “Complaint for Damages, Conspiracy to Deprive Plaintiff of a Fair Election. ’ ’ It-contained only one count. After a demurrer was sustained with leave to amend, plaintiff filed a two count complaint retaining what, for the sake of brevity, we will call the “-conspiracy” count and adding a cause of action for libel. Another demurrer by defendants was sustained, without leave to amend as to the conspiracy count and with leave as to the libel count. Plaintiff made two more attempts to amend the libel count and finally a demurrer to his third amended complaint was sustained without leave to amend further. The judgment appealed from ensued.

Both counts are based on essentially the same facts. Such differences as there are will be noted. Briefly summarized this is what is alleged in the libel count: when plaintiff qualified as a candidate against defendant Rousselot, the defendants agreed (“entered into a conspiracy”) to cause his defeat and to cause the nomination of Rousselot at the primary…