The court was asked whether a slander conveyed an imputation on the plaintiff in his business as a solicitor and was therefore actionable in the absence of proof of special damage.
Held: AL Smith MR said: ‘The words do not, in my opinion, reasonably convey any imputation of impropriety or misconduct on the part of the plaintiff in relation to or in connection with his profession or business, or of unfitness to carry on his business in a proper and satisfactory manner. To my mind the two expressions – that the plaintiff has gone for thousands or has lost thousands – mean very much the same thing, namely, that the plaintiff has lost a considerable sum of money. It would not be reasonable to say that they [the words complained of] impute to him any want of capacity to carry on the business or profession of a solicitor.’
Judges:
AL Smith MR
Citations:
[1901] 2 KB 441
Cited by:
Cited – Dee v Telegraph Media Group Ltd QBD 28-Apr-2010
The newspaper sought summary judgment in its defence of the defamation claim. The article labelled the claimant as the world’s worst professional tennis player. The paper said he had no prospect of succeeding once the second article in the same . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation
Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.408774