Hogan v. Star Co.

Headnote

Libel —• complaint dismissed on ground article complained of was not libelous.

Hogan v. Star Co., 222 App. Div. 766 , reversed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, entered January 4,1928, modifying and affirming as modified a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict in an action to recover for an alleged libel. Defendant published in its newspaper the following: “ I guess they [the police] just had to arrest somebody, and' they couldn’t catch us, so what did they do but rope in a poor simp with a pretty face by the name of Helen Quigley, that had never done anything worse than dance in a burlesque show. Some Russian by the name of Kovaleski gave them a bum steer to square a private grudge, and the papers printed her picture and said ' Bobbed-Bandit Caught at Last.’ Ed and I thought that was fine, for we figured they couldn’t convict her, and while they were finding out she wasn’t the right one it would keep suspicion off of us. But it didn’t break that way. Next day the cops went and got this Hogan, who was the manager of the Roulston grocery store, the first man I stuck up, and they showed him Helen Quigley, and he

said: ‘ Sure, that’s the girl that robbed me. I’d know her anywhere.’ And didn’t they go and get three more of the clerks who swore the same thing. I don’t think for a minute they were trying to crook her. People say she does look a little bit like me, though I can’t see it, and she is about my size. And I guess they were so scared at the time they couldn’t remember very well — so busy, maybe, looking at the automatic that they didn’t pay much attention to my face. * * * Well, anyway, there was Helen Quigley, in jail, identified as me, and sure now to be convicted on Plogan’s word, backed up by the others.”