Heyward v. Sanner

Page, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The plaintiff below was a conductor on one of the cars of the City and Suburban Railway Company in the city of Baltimore. It was his duty, when fares were collected, to register them by a device called an “indicator,” and to account each day for the number shown by the register. It is alleged in the narr. that after having been wrongfully discharged from the service of that company, he became a ²⁰ conductor on the cars of the Lake Roland Elevated Railway Company, which also operated a line of street cars in the same city; that whilst so employed, the defendant falsely and maliciously, with intent to injure the plaintiff, spoke and published in the presence of the superintendent of the Lake Roland Company, and of other persons, “ the false and defamatory' words following, namely, ‘ Put Sanner (meaning the plaintiff), off the road (meaning-that the said superintendent should discharge the plaintiff from the employ of the said Lake Roland Elevated Company), he (meaning the plaintiff), had twenty-five on the indicator and thirty-six in the car (meaning thereby that the plaintiff as conductor, &c., had collected thirty-six fares, &c., and noted only twenty-five fares on the indicator, and that the plaintiff had wrongfully embezzled the other eleven fares and intended to defraud the said City and Suburban Railway Company out of the same);” by reason whereof the plaintiff was discharged from the service of the company, and was otherwise greatly injured.

The appellant having failed to plead, the appellee obtained a judgment by default. Later on an inquisition of damages was taken before the Judge at Large. The defendant appeared by counsel, and evidence on both sides was taken. Among other things there was testimony to the effect that at the time the words were spoken, a Mr. Fredericks was the'general manager of the Lake Roland Company.

That the road of that company had been purchased by the City and Suburban Company, and until the merger of the two roads was completed, he was remaining in control of the former road, and under the arrangement was,' “ in a general way, subject to the orders ” of the appellant, who was the general manager of the City and Suburban Road. That the plaintiff- was discharged by him, by reason of the words set out in the declaration, which were spoken to him “over the telephone,’” in the ordinary course of business. At the close of the testimony, the defendant prayed the Court to rule “ that in considering the question of the con ²¹ versation between Mr. Heyward and Mr. Fredericks, as officials of the same railway system, that it was proper for Heyward in telling Fredericks to discharge Sanner, to give to Fredericks the reason which led him, Heyward, to direct Sanner’s discharge, and that said statements were privileged.” The Court having refused so to rule, the defendant excepted, and the propriety of this action of the Court is the only question we are called on to determine. That a judgment by default fixes the liability of the defendant and establishes the right of the plaintiff to recover some amount to be afterwards determined by an inquisition of damages cannot now be questioned.

This Court has said in the case of Green v. Hamilton, 16 Md. 329 , that a judgment by default “ if regularly