Beals v. Thompson Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, June 20, 1889. Reported in 149 Massachusetts Reports, 405

Tort for a libel contained in letters written by the defendant to the plaintiff’s husband, and charging her with having been guilty of dishonorable conduct, deception, and ingratitude and dishonesty towards the defendant, whereby she lost the comfort and society of her husband, who refused to live longer with her.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $30,000; and the defendant alleged exceptions.

Field, J. The exceptions also state, that the court refused “to instruct the jury that each of the letters mentioned in plaintiff’s declaration was a privileged communication, and that this action could not therefore be maintained,” and “instructed the jury that no privilege was shown.” No facts are recited in the bill of exceptions which tend to show that the occasion was privileged, except such as may be inferred from the relation of the parties to each other, and from the contents of the letters. Taking the case most favorably for the defendant, it is that the plaintiff owed a debt to the defendant for money lent to her before her marriage, which, after her marriage with a rich man, she refused to pay, under circumstances which showed ingratitude on her part, and that the defendant wrote a letter to the husband defamatory of the plaintiff, for the purpose of compelling him or her to pay the debt. This is not a lawful method of collecting a debt, or of compelling another person than the debtor to pay it. The defendant owed no duty to the husband to inform him of the bad conduct of his wife before her marriage, and the husband was under no obligation to pay the debts of his wife contracted before her marriage. There is no evidence that the defendant in sending the letter to the husband was acting in the discharge of any duty, social, moral, or legal. The ruling was right. Gassett v. Gilbert, 6 Gray, 94; Krebs v. Oliver, 12 Gray, 239; Joannes v. Bennett, 5 All. 169; Shurtleff v. Parker, 130 Mass. 293; White v. Nicholls, 3 How. 266.

Exceptions overruled.