A lady interested in the poor, and president of the district nursing association, believed that owing to the opinions held by the parish medical officer the district nurse s services were not employed as frequently as they ought to have been. The Parish Council, which contributed to the nursing association, had considered the matter and had instructed the medical officer to employ the nurse in such cases as he considered necessary. The president of the nursing association having had brought under her notice the case of an old age pensioner, who was being attended by the medical officer, and who ought as she thought to have had the benefit of the nurse’s services, wrote to the chairman of the parish council. The medical officer who had attended the pensioner as a private patient innuendoed the letter as imputing professional negligence, and brought an action of damages for slander.
Held: (rev. judgment of the First Division) that the letter was privileged.
The appellant ‘was in fact president of the association, and her position as such president, coupled with the general interest that she took in the welfare of the poor, was sufficient to justify a communication made by her to the Parish Council with regard to a circumstance which she believed to show that the respondent was not duly regarding the directions he had received with regard to the district nurse.’-Per Lord Chancellor.
‘To protect those who are not able to protect themselves is a duty which every one owes to society.’- Per Lord Macnaghten in Jenoure v. Delmege, [1891] AC 73 at 77, approved.
Old-age pensioners are not entirely outwith the discharge of the duties which a parish council owes to the poor.
Observations on the province of the Court in the adjustment of an issue for the trial of an action of damages for slander based on a letter which is innuendoed.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Buckmaster), Earl Loreburn, Viscount Haldane, Lord Kinnear, and Lord Atkinson
Citations:
[1916] UKHL 392, 53 SLR 392
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Defamation
Updated: 11 July 2022; Ref: scu.630682