Andrew Smith J, dismissed a defendant’s application for summary judgment, saying that that it was not fatal to the claim that the claimant could not plead or prove that the defendant caused or authorised publication of ‘the specific defamatory words of which complaint is made’, as opposed to the imputation(s) arising from them.
Where the original words of the source or contributor are defamatory of the claimant and s/he knows that his words are liable to be republished, it is not necessary to show that the published libel is verbally and literally the identical communication which originated with the defendant provided that the sense and substance or the same defamatory message is conveyed
Judges:
Andrew Smith J
Citations:
[2013] EWHC 1630 (Comm)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Stocker v Stocker QBD 10-Jun-2015
The claimant alleged defamation by his former wife in a post on facebook. The posting and associatedeEmails were said falsely to have accused him of serious abuse, and that the accusations had undermined his relationship with his new partner.
Cited – Turley v Unite The Union and Another QBD 19-Dec-2019
Defamation of Labour MP by Unite and Blogger
The claimant now a former MP had alleged that a posting on a website supported by the first defendant was false and defamatory. The posting suggested that the claimant had acted dishonestly in applying online for a category of membership of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation
Updated: 25 September 2022; Ref: scu.510813