Carpenter

Action for slander. Plaintiff complained that defendant, on January 23 and 24, 1901, spoke and published certain defamatory words of and concerning plaintiff, in the presence and hearing of divers persons, to his damage in the sum of $10,000.

Defendant denied, in his answer, that he uttered the words attributed to him or any words other than as defendant set forth; that they were spoken under circumstances which he described and while defendant, as district attorney, was prosecuting one Ennis in a justice’s court, whom plaintiff was defending, and that the language used by defendant had its origin in connection with certain testimony being given by one Stennett, whom defendant accused of committing perjury and whom he declared his intention to have arrested and prosecuted therefor; that the language addressed to plaintiff and which he used of and concerning him was entirely different from that attributed to him by plaintiff, and was not intended to and did not charge plaintiff with having committed the crime involved in the alleged slanderous words, and that what defendant did say was true and was spoken in the discharge of his duty as district attorney, and was privileged.

This…