JOHNSON v. INGLIS

JOHNSON v. INGLIS
1942 OK 79
123 P.2d 275
190 Okla. 319
Case Number: 30332
Decided: 02/17/1942
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

JOHNSON
v.
INGLIS

Syllabus

¶0 LIBEL AND SLANDER--Petition alleging defendant made certain slanderous statements about plaintiff to police officer stated cause of action since such statements only qualifiedly privileged.
A petition alleging that defendant made slanderous statements about plaintiff to a police officer, and seeking damage therefor, states a cause of action, the defendant's defense of privilege being a defense depending upon the evidence. Statements made by a citizen to an officer of the law imputing involvement of a person in a crime are only qualifiedly privileged.

Appeal from District Court, Oklahoma County; Frank P. Douglass, Judge.

Action in damages by E. R. Johnson against Laurens H. Inglis. From a judgment for the plaintiff and the order of the court thereon setting aside and vacating the judgment, plaintiff appeals, Reversed and remanded, with directions.

B. M. Parmenter, of Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.
John W. Hayson, of Oklahoma City, for defendant in error.

PER CURIAM.

¶1 The petition in the case at bar and the record are similar in all respects to that in Johnson v. Inglis, 190 Okla. 316, 123 P.2d 272, decided this day, and the opinion and directions to the trial court in that cause are hereby adopted as the opinion and directions in this cause.

¶2 Reversed and remanded, with directions.

¶3 WELCH, C. J., and RILEY, OSBORN, BAYLESS, HURST, DAVISON, and ARNOLD, JJ., concur. CORN, V. C. J., and GIBSON, J., absent.