Excise Probe Is Used as Shield in Libel Action
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Camden Police Captain Makes Answer To $10,000 Damage Suit of Saloon Keeper.
Police Captain Arthur Stanley of Camden, has filed in the Supreme Court his pleas in the suit instituted against him by Patrick Carr, a Camden saloon keeper, for $10,000 damages. Carr asks the damages on the allegation that the Police Captain testified before the State Excise Commission at its hearing in the Camden Court House last July that "he (Carr) is not a fit person to keep a saloon." Carr alleges also that Stanley further testified that this complainant kept the same kind of a saloon as certain other persons named, meaning thereby that Carr kept a disorderly house. Carr in his declaration claimed that the statements were untrue and asked the damages for injury to his good name and business credit. Carr is represented by John W. Westcott of Camden.
In his plea Captain Stanley denies that he has been guilty of any grievance against Carr. He declares that the statements were made by him as a Captain of Police, presiding over the precinct in which Carr's saloon is located; that they were made before the State Excise Commission appointed by Governor Fort under a joint resolution of the Legislature to investigate the whole excise question.
At Public Hearing
The plea of the defendant goes on to declare that at the time in question the commission was holding a public hearing in the Court House in Camden and this defendant was subpoenaed to give testimony. He was under oath to tell the truth concerning Camden excise matters, especially in his precinct, as to the general character of the licensees there. Captain Stanley avers further that the statements attributed to him were made in reply to the inquiries then being made by the commission and were not made for the purpose of injuring the plaintiff in any way. The defendant says his sole purpose was to inform the commission as to the whole excise conditions in Camden.
Going on in his plea Captain Stanley says that all of the statements in Carr's declaration alleged to have been made by this defendant are in fact true and the defendant is ready to verify the truth of them. Stanley, therefore, asks the court to give judgment in his favor. The defendant is represented by Lawyer Peter Backes, of this city, who is one of the State Excise probers.