Skrocki

The action, being for libel, was tried before a jury, and the general verdict was in favor of the defendants. The alleged defamatory matter was published in the “Vallejo Evening News,” a daily newspaper, of which the defendants are the owners and publishers, according to the undenied allegation of the complaint. The article complained of stated that a brother of plaintiff had committed suicide, leaving a letter setting forth the rácetrack and slot-machines as the reasons for ending his life. The tragic manner of his self-destruction is graphically described and the article proceeds in the following strain, which is the gist of the offending: “Skrocki was an anarchist and a brother of Walter Skrocki, who, when President McKinley was assassinated remarked to a fellow-workman on Mare Island, ‘He ought to be killed. ’ He was placed under arrest and held at the city jail, but the complainant refusing to press the charge, the prisoner was released.”

It is denied in the answer that plaintiff was damaged to any extent, and by way of justification it is alleged that the statement as to plaintiff’s declaration in regard to President McKinley was and is true, “and as a matter of fact the…