Graybill

This action was for libel. The trial resulted in a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of one thousand dollars. This appeal is from the order of the court denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

It appears that one Kapus had victimized certain residents of the city of Los Angeles, and had defrauded them out of large sums of money by inducing them to purchase claims for damages against the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, which claims were wholly false and fraudulent. He represented to his victims that through his connection with Vincent, a clerk in the main office of the company, he was enabled to ascertain the fact of the allowance of these claims in advance of the claimants themselves. The time came when the men he had defrauded demanded from Kapus some satisfactory explanation as to why their money was not paid, and Kapus then produced before them a person whom he alleged to be Vincent, the clerk, and introduced him as Vincent. Thereafter Vincent disappeared, and Kapus mournfully explained that he had taken with him the seventy thousand dollars paid over by the victims. One of these victims, Dr. Pepper, came to San Francisco in pursuit of Vincent, and there learned that no…