An affidavit had been supplied by defendants to landlord and tenant proceedings, against whom the claimant alleged unlawful eviction, to a landlord who was also a defendant to an unlawful eviction claim brought by the claimant, and who used it for the purpose of applying to strike out that claim. The claimant sued in libel on the publication of the affidavit to the landlord, which was held to be absolutely privileged because the statements made within it had reference to the subject matter of the proceedings in which the landlord was a defendant. The claim was struck out as vexatious.
Held: The court maintained the decision pointing out that an affidavit in identical terms would have been appropriately filed in the second proceedings. The contents of an affidavit will be absolutely privileged unless they have no reference at all to the subject matter of the proceedings, and that any doubt should be resolved in favour of the witness.
Citations:
Gazette 31-May-2000, [2000] EMLR 985
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Iqbal v Mansoor and Others QBD 26-Aug-2011
The claimant sought the disapplication of the limitation period in order to pursue the defendant solicitors, his former employers, in defamation. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.89309
