Damage Suits

McLean v. "Record." Readers of the hard-hitting Philadelphia Record had their attention arrested last fortnight by news that Publisher Edward Beale McLean of the Washington, D. C., Post was suing the Record for one million dollars damages for an article descriptive of "a social incident" between Publisher McLean and Prince Albert Edouard Eugene Lamoral de Ligne, the Belgian Ambassador to the U. S., an "incident" which had allegedly resulted in the Post's editorial attack upon the Ambassador (TIME, May 13, 27). Last week, the hard-hitting Record kept its readers' attention in custody by printing a front-page "correction in fairness to the Washington Post and Publisher McLean." In this statement, Publisher Julius David Stern of the Record caused his newspaper to say that, upon investigation, the Record "finds that the report of the social incident was erroneous, and furthermore that there was no ground for attributing the motive of the editorial to anything other than the editorial policy of the Post. ". . . The Record makes this correction, and regrets exceedingly the error." Guessing that the next news would be Publisher McLean's withdrawal of his million-dollar action, readers of the hard-hitting Record, and of other publications which had touched on the case of Publisher McLean v. Prince de Ligne, transferred their attention elsewhere. Infant Shame. The minimum age at which a person can be embarrassed, shamed and disgraced has never been clearly defined. But up to last week one Theodore W. Purtee, of Cincinnati, considered that a 12-month-old baby was not too young to be embarrassed, shamed, disgraced. A concern used Mr. Purtee's infant son's picture for advertising purposes in a manner which he thought most humiliating. Father Purtee sued for $5,000 damages, alleging that Infant Purtee had, because of it, been "ridiculed by friends and acquaintances." Furthermore, the picture hard been published without Infant Purtee's permission. Last week, a Cincinnati jury decided against Infant Purtee, holding him too young to feel embarrassment, shame, disgrace, ridicule.