A company in business in Prague had sent a document defamatory of the claimants with whom they were in a business relationship to the British Ambassador in Prague and asked for his assistance.
Held: On the relevance of ‘common interest ‘ to the defence of qualified privilege ‘Counsel for the defendants drew an analogy with the recent case of Kearns v General Counsel of the Bar . . That too was primarily a common interest case, but it turned upon the well-established relationship between the Bar Council and members of the Bar . . The issue was not fact sensitive therefore, in the sense that it would become necessary to investigate the particular circumstances surrounding each individual publication. Here, by contrast, the common and corresponding interest contended for is not, so to speak, ‘off the peg’ and is being tailored to the individual circumstances and people involved. There is more room, therefore, for factual inquiry at trial before it can be finally determined that the common interest alleged would be classified as ‘legitimate’ by the law of defamation.’
Judges:
Eady J
Citations:
[2002] All ER (D) 314, [2002] EWHC 2501 (QB)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Downtex v Flatley CA 2-Oct-2003
The claimants sought damages for defamation and breach of contract. The claimants had purchased a business from the defendant, which contract included a clause requiring the defendant to say nothing damaging about the business. The defendant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation
Updated: 05 April 2022; Ref: scu.186631