A defendant offering an explanation as part of a defamation settlement must not detract from the Plaintiff’s vindication. The court rejected the submission of the defendant in a libel action that the claimant should be refused permission to read a Statement of Open Court in the form for which the claimant sought permission. The defendant did not oppose the claimant’s application for permission to make a statement at all. The ground of its opposition was that the claimant should have included in the statement and explanation of the defendant’s reasons for paying money into court. The defendant had explained that this was ‘entirely for commercial reasons and does not reflect our view of the strength of [the defendant]’s case on the merits.’ There was a plea of justification. The judge held that in the circumstances of that case the claimant was entitled to a statement which wholly vindicated and exonerated her.
Judges:
HHJ Previt
Citations:
Times 11-Jun-1993
Cited by:
Cited – Adelson and Another v Associated Newspapers QBD 19-Feb-2008
Complaint was made that an article was defamatory of the owner of Manchester United. The defendant now argued that the game was not worth the candle. The costs vastly exceeded any possible recovery, and it had openly offered vindication, and that . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation
Updated: 08 April 2022; Ref: scu.78991