JUSTIFICATION. In Pleading. The allegation of matter of fact by the defendant, establishing his legal right to do the act com plained of by the plaintiff.
Justification admits the doing of the act charged as a wrong, but alleges a right to do it on the part of the defendant, thus denying that it is a wrong. Excuse merely shows reasons why the defendant should not make good the injury which the plain tiff has suffered from some wrong done. See AVOWRY.
2. Trespasses. A warrant, regular on its face, and issued by a court of competent ju risdiction, is a complete justification to the officer to whom it is directed for obeying its command, whether it be really valid or not, But where the warrant is absolutely void, or apparently irregular in an important respect, or where the act done is one which is beyond the power conferred by the warrant, it is no justification. See ARREST ; TRESPASS. So, too, many acts, and even homicide committed in self-defence, or defence of wife, children, or servants, are justifiable, see SELF-DEFENCE; or in preserving the public peace, see ARREST ; TRESPASS; or under a license, express or im plied, 3 Caines, N. Y. 261; 2 Bail. So. C. 4; 3 McLean, C. C. 571; see 13 Me. 115 ; in cluding entry on land to demand a debt, to remove chattels, 2 Watts & S. Penn. 225; 12 Vt. 273; see 2 Humphr. Tenn. 425; to ask lodgings at an inn, the entry in such cases being peaceful ; to exercise an incorporeal right, 21 Pick. Mass. 272 ; or for public ser vice in case of exigency, as pulling down houses to stop a fire, Year B. 13 Hen. VIII. 16 b; destroying the suburbs of a city in time of war, Year B. 8 Edw. 1V. 35 b; entry on land to make fortifications ; or in of the owner's rights of property, 14 Conn. 255 ; 4 Dev. & B. No. C. 110 ; 7 Dan. Ky. 220 ; Wright, Ohio, 333 ; 25 Me. 453 ; 6 Penn. St. 318 ; 12 Mete. Mass. 53, are justifiable.
3. Libel and slander may be justified in a civil action, in some cases, by proving the truth of the matter alleged, and generally by showing that the defendant had a right upon the particular occasion either to write and publish the writing or to utter the words : as, when slanderous words are found in a re port of a committee of congress, or in an indictment, or words of a slanderous nature are uttered in the course of debate in the legislature by member, or at the bar by counsel when properly instructed by his cli ent on the subject. Comyns, Dig. Pleader (2
L 3-2 L 7). See' DEBATE; SLANDER.
Matter. in justification must be specially pleaded, and cannot be given in evidence under the general issue. See LICENSE. A plea of justification to an action for slander, oral or written, should state the charge with the same degree of certainty and precision as are required in an indictment. The object of the plea is to give the plaintiff, who is in truth an accused person, the means of know ing what are the matters alleged against him. It must be direct and explicit. It must in every respect correspond with, and be as ex tensive as the charge in, the declaration.
4. The justification, however, will be com plete if it covers the essence of the libel. But it must extend to every part which could by itself form a substantive ground of action. Where the slander consists in an imputation of crime, the plea of justification must con tain!' the same degree of precision as is requi site in an indictment for the crime, and must be supported by the same proof that is required on the trial of such an indictment. It is a perfectly well-established rule that where the charge is general in its nature, yet the plea of justification must state specific instances of the misconduct imputed to the plaintiff. And, even for the purpose of avoid ing prolixity, a plea of justification cannot make a general charge of criminality or mis conduct, but must set out the specific facts in which the imputed offence consists, and with