LIBEL BY POSTCARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12955, 26 August 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

LIBEL BY POSTCARD.

At Lincoln Assizes. Mrs Morley, of Kirkby Laythorpe, near Boston, was the plaintiff, and Mrs. Tomlinso*, of Castlethorpe, and formerly of Rauceby, the defendant, in an action to recover damages' for an alleged libel contained on a postcard. Mr. Hugo Young (for plaintiff) said that was the third occasion plaintiff had had to bring an action to clew her character against the persistent attacks that had been made upon her chastity. As Miss Chapman, she arranged to marry a young, gentleman in every way suited to her, Mr. J. Sherwia Morloy. Some members of the future husband's family appeared to have made a dead set against her, and had tried to induce him not to many her. Imputations were made aganst her, and, after she was married to him, she brought actions against two defendants, one of whom was Mr. Tomlinson, the present defendant's husband. Both defendants took refuge in the defence that they uecer spoke the words attributed to them, but nevertheless the jury decided in her favour in each case. Alter the last trial, which took place in July, 1904, plaintiff received a postcard whicb contained the libel complained of in the present action. It was addressed to Mrs. Hose Olive Morley, Kirkby Lavthorpe, near Boston, Lincolnshire, and the words complained of were that, though she had won. in the action, it would never do her any good, as "it remained the same." The last words of the postcard were: "Do you imagine that the defendant or any of his friends have written this? The writer is quite a stranger to them."' That, asserted counsel, led them to believe that it was someone who knew the circumstances of the trial who had written the postcard. Before the last trial a letter had been received by plaintiff from Mrs. Tomlinson, the present defendant, relating to the action against her husband (Mr. Tomlinson). The postcard, contended Mr. Young, was written by the same person who wrote that letter, and, further, there had been an apparent attempt to disguise the handwriting on the postcard. Mrs. Morley, the plaintiff, gave evidence in support of this statement; and Mr. Walter do Birch, LL.D., an expert in handwriting, who for forty years had been, engaged in the British Museum, pointed out, various points of similarity between the writing on the postcard and that in the letter. He expressed the opinion that both were written by the same person. Mrs. Tomlinson denied that she ever wrote the postcard, or instructed anybody to write it, or had anything to do with it. The jury returned a verdict for defendant, and the foreman added that they thought the evidence not sufficient to prove that Mrs. Tomlinson wrote the postcard.