James S. Burney v. Southern Railway

MERRILL, Justice. This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of defendant in a libel suit and from the order overruling a
motion for a new trial. The verdict was the result of the giving of the affirmative charge without hypothesis in favor of
defendant on the ground that there was no publication of the libel. Appellant was a railroad conductor assigned to the Norris Yard in Birmingham. D. E. Gwillim was an engineer and appellant's
co-worker on the job. Their work consisted of the switching of cars incident to interchange of cars with railroads other than
Southern Railway. Appellant turned in the time ticket for himself and the crew showing the termination of the job on July
22 and July 23, 1958, each of which included overtime. Three railroad officials were watching each of the nights in question
and a report was sent to J. R. Tipton, Superintendent of Terminals, indicating a discrepancy between the times they saw the
work terminate and the times reported on appellant's time ticket.