LIBEL AND SLANDER - ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY UNDER STATUTE

The Board of Regents of the Colored Agricultural and Normal University of Oklahoma, charged with the statutory duty of governing the university in all its interests, directed the defendant, president of the university, to report to the board any misconduct or any irregularity on the part of any teacher or employee of the University. At a regular session of the board the defendant made an oral statement to the board, imputing moral misconduct to the plaintiff, who was then employed as a matron at said university. Held, in making said statement the defendant was acting in the proper discharge of an official duty within the meaning of the statute defining privileged communications; and that the occasion upon which the report. was made was absolutely privileged. Sanford v. Howard, 185 Okla. 660, 95 P. (2d) 644 (1939)