810 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It appeared from the evidence that the charge of stealing was not 

 made until after she had left the defendant's service ; that he had 

 told her he would sav nothing about it if she would resume her 

 employment at his house, and that he afterward said to her that, 

 if she would admit the theft, he would give her a character. The 

 jury concluded that he was not acting bona fide in the reply he 

 gave to the inquiry as to the girl's character, and gave her a 

 verdict.* 



In making a damaging statement to an inquiring person about a 

 domestic, it is perhaps kinder to her to see that no one is present but 

 the one interested in the inquiry. It may also turn out to be the safer 

 course to pursue. It is true that such caution is not absolutely essen- 

 tial for the protection of the communication, but, if an opportunity is 

 sought for making a charge before third persons when it might have 

 been made in private, it affords strong evidence of a malicious inten- 

 tion, and thus deprives it of that immunity which the law allows to 

 such a statement when made honestly ; and, too, the fact that a third 

 person is present is a circumstance which, taken in connection with 

 others, such as the style and character of the language used, would 

 have weight with a jury in determining whether the person making 

 the statement had acted in good faith or had been influenced by mal- 

 ice, f The same thing may be said of an accusation made to a servant 

 in the presence of another. It is a question for the jury. If it is 

 made at such a time, on such an occasion, and under such circum- 

 stances that the inference of malice prima facie arising from the ac- 

 cusation is rebutted, the burden of showing that it was actuated by 

 malice or ill-will rests upon the servant. It must, for instance, be 

 made in good faith and for a justifiable purpose, in the discharge of 

 a duty, public or private, legal or moral, or in the prosecution of one's 

 own rights and interests, and without any design to defame the person 

 to whom it relates, even though it is all untrue.J Thus, if a lady is 

 about to discharge a servant, and calls in a third person to hear the 

 reason therefor, and states the reason in that person's presence, the 

 courts have held that such a communication made with honesty of 

 purpose is privileged.* It has been held, however, in Massachusetts, 

 that a false charge made before a third person is libelous. | If the 

 statement is made in answer to inquiries, it must be to some person 

 who has an interest in the inquiry, and not as mere matter of gossip. A 

 So, where a gentleman, having dismissed his servant for dishonesty, 

 refused to give him a character, alleging to those who applied that 

 he had dismissed him from his service for dishonesty, and the servant's 

 brother afterward inquired of the master why he had so treated the 

 servant, and was thus keeping him out of a situation, the gentle- 

 man replied, " He has robbed me, and I believe for years past." 



* 16 C. B. N. S., 829. \ 109 Mass., 193. % 3 How. (IT. S.), 266. 



* 16 Q. B., 322. || ] 09 Mass., 193. A 1 C. M. and R., 181. 



