Woolsey v. Judd (1855) 4 Duer (N.Y.) 379
Baker v. Libbie (1912) 210 Mass. 599, 97 N.E. 109, 37 L.R.A.
                                  (N.S.) 944
Hearst v. Black (1936) 87 Fed. 268
34 American Jurisprudence '' 14, 15, 16 & 20
51 L.R.A. 360, note.
37 L.R.A. (N.S.) 944, note.
 
         Baker v. Libbie, supra, is probably the leading
case in this
country on the subject. In that case the Executor of Mary
Eddy Baker, the founder of the Christian Science Movement,
sued to restrain the publication of personal letters
written by Mrs. Baker to a cousin about domestic and
business affairs. The court in granting the injunction
wrote a scholarly opinion in which it reviewed the
authorities and re-examined the question on principle. The
court concluded that:
 
                  "The existence of a right in the author
over his letters,
         even though private and without worth as
literature, is
         established on principle and authority. The right
is
          property in its essential features. It is,
therefore,
          entitled to all the protection which the
constitution and
          laws give to property."
 
         Relying principally on Baker v. Libbie, the Circuit
Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia said in the fairly
recent case of Hearst v. Black:
 
                    "That there is and always has been a
property right in
              letters and other writings which a court of
equity will
              protect is too well settled to discuss.  It is
one of those
              rights which antedate the Constitution. It is
inherent in a
              free government."
 
         The foregoing general rule rests entirely on the
common law
and does not appear to have been enacted into statute, at
least not
 
                                                            
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