The public, who go to a theatre, have a right to express thelr free and unbiassed opinions of the merits of the performers who appear upon the stage, but parties have no right to go to a theatre, by a preconcerted plan to make such a noise that an actor, without any judgment being formed of his performance, should be driven from the stage, and if two persons are shewn to have laid a preconcerted plan to deprive a person who comes out as an actor of the benefits which he expected to result from his appearance on the stage, they are liable in an action for a conspiracy. In an action for a, conspiracy to hiss an actor, the defendants cannot, under the genera1 issue, give in evidence libels published by the plaintiff, with a view of shewing that the plaintiff was hissed on account of those libels, and not by reason of any conspiracy of the defendants. In an action for a conspiracy, the defendants pleaded the general issue, arid also a special plea of justification, which plea was demurred to, and held bad by the Court, who gave judgment on it for the plaintiff and the award of venire was as well to try the issue joined ‘as, to inquire what damages the said plaintiff hath sustained on occasion of the premises whereof the Court hath given judgment for the said plaintiff’ Held, that on the trial at Nisi Prius, the defendant’s counsel, in addressing the jury, had a right to refer to the allegatlons contained in the special plea, and to comment upon them.
Citations:
[1843] EngR 859, (1843) 1 Car and K 24, (1843) 174 ER 696
Links:
Media, Torts – Other, Litigation Practice
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.306553
