Snyder v. Andrews Supreme Court, New York, March 5, 1849. Reported in 6 Barbour, 43

This was an action on the case for a libel. The defendant pleaded the general issue, and gave notice of special matter.

The cause was tried at the Saratoga circuit in November, 1847, before Justice Paige. On the trial the defendant admitted that he wrote the letter containing the alleged libel, sealed the same, and put it into the post-office at Saratoga Springs, directed to the plaintiff at his residence. The plaintiff proved by John R. Brown that the letter was read to the witness by the defendant at his office in the presence of a young man who was a clerk of the defendant. The defendant’s counsel then moved for a nonsuit, on the ground that a publication of the libel had not been proved. The judge denied the motion.

The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff of $250. And the defendant, upon a bill of exceptions, moved for a new trial.

Willard, J. The fact that the defendant read the letter to a stranger, before it was sent to the plaintiff, was not questioned on the trial, and is assumed to be true by the form of the objection; but it is insisted that such reading did not amount to a publication of the libel. No man incurs any civil responsibility by what he thinks or even writes, unless he divulges his thoughts to the temporal prejudice of another. Hence, a sealed letter containing libellous matter, if communicated to no one but to the party libelled, is not the foundation for a civil action, although it may be of an indictment. Lyle v. Clason, 1 Caines, 581; Hodges v. The State, 5 Humphrey, 112; 1 Wms. Saund. 132, n. 2; Phillips v. Jansen, 2 Esp. 626; 2 Starkie on Slander (Wend. ed.), 14. But where the defendant, knowing that letters addressed to the plaintiff were usually opened by and read by his clerk, wrote a libellous letter and directed it to the plaintiff and his clerk received and read it, it was held there was a sufficient publication to support the action. Delacroix v. Thevenot, 2 Stark. 63. And in Schenck v. Schenck, 1 Spencer, 208, a sealed letter addressed and delivered to the wife containing a libel on her husband was held a publication sufficient to enable the latter to sustain an action. Reading or singing the contents of a libel in the presence of others has been adjudged a publication. 2 Starkie on Slander, 16; 5 Rep. 125; 9 Id. 59 b; 1 Saund. 132, n. 2. The reading of the letter in question by the defendant in the presence of Brown was a sufficient publication to sustain this action.

New trial denied.