The pursuer sought election as a county councillor for a division where a parish had been divided into two electoral divisions for county council purposes. The defender lived in the same parish but he was an elector in the other division. He had made various statements to people in the parish that the pursuer was not fit to be elected as he would soon be bankrupt. His argument was that the statements were made in circumstances that were privileged, as he was a ratepayer in the parish and the pursuer was a candidate for the public post of county councillor on one of the divisions of that parish. It was rejected, simply on the ground that he was not a voter in the election with reference to which he was said to have made the statements complained of.
Citations:
(1891) 18 R 467
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Cited by:
Cited – Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd and others HL 28-Oct-1999
Fair Coment on Political Activities
The defendant newspaper had published articles wrongly accusing the claimant, the former Prime Minister of Ireland of duplicity. The paper now appealed, saying that it should have had available to it a defence of qualified privilege because of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.194520