The plaintiff pleaded that on a day at the end of 1910 or early in 1911 the defendant published specified defamatory words to Le Grys and further during the years 1910, 1911 and 1912 the defendant published similar words. The slander imputed immoral conduct to the plaintiff, a married woman. The plaintiff stated that she could not give particulars until discovery. She sought to administer interrogatories asking whether the defendant had in any of the three years uttered the words complained of to any person other than the person named and, if so, the names of such persons.
Held: The interrogatories were disallowed in this particular case. The plaintiff’s application to administer interrogatories was not based upon sworn evidence as to there having been other publications.
Kennedy LJ said: ‘In the present case there is nothing before the court to show any foundation whatever for the suggestion that the defendant has uttered any defamatory statements of the plaintiff beyond the one particularised in the statement, and the plaintiff is endeavouring by means of these interrogatories to find out whether at any time during a period of three years the defendant has said the same thing or substantially the same thing to other persons. The plaintiff’s application is not based on sworn evidence as to there having been other publications, as was the case in Russell v Stubbs but on a mere allegation unsupported by evidence.’
Judges:
Kennedy LJ
Citations:
[1913] 2 KB 193
Citing:
Distinguished – Russell v Stubbs Limited HL 3-Apr-1913
The plaintiff said that the defendants, publishers of a trade magazine providing inter alia credit references, had slandered it. The defendants appealed against an order requiring it to provide details of others to whom the slander had been . .
Cited by:
Cited – Citation Plc v Ellis Whittam Ltd CA 8-Mar-2013
The parties competed in providing employment law services. The claimant complained of slanderous comments said to have been made by the defendant in discussions with a firm of solicitors seeking to select a firm. The claimant now appealed against . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation, Litigation Practice
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.471570