Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 18
1 down.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: Can I suggest this, since this is not evidence,
4 I do not want to speak at dictation speed, because that is
5 annoying for everyone, including me.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I will do, I will take a break at about
8 five to 12, and I will make it a 10 minute break, and if
9 you make a note, for instance, that that was about 1645 or
10 something like that on Caseview, the court will remain
11 open -----
12
13 MR. RAMPTON: What I was going to suggest was that in this case,
14 because we are not dealing with evidence, this might be an
15 occasion for us -- and I have to take instructions -- but
16 it might be an occasion for us to break our rule about
17 daily transcripts and give the Defendants a transcript of
18 the argument, as we have undertaken to do in relation to
19 your Lordship's rulings.
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That might well be helpful if the argument
22 was going to take long enough to -----
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24 MR. RAMPTON: It may not do. That is the trouble.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us see how we go. I will give that 10
27 minute break anyway. I think you had better start again,
28 anyway, because you were part way through.
29
30 MR. RAMPTON: The natural and ordinary meaning is the meaning of
31 the words -- and one is talking always, and I am grateful
32 to your Lordship for what you said earlier, about a
33 defamatory meaning, if any, because it is irrelevant and
34 pointless to talk about meanings which are not defamatory;
35 it is for a plaintiff, anyway. The natural and ordinary
36 meaning is either the literal meaning -- X committed murder
37 is an example -- or any natural implication or inference
38 which the ordinary reader draws from the words, using his
39 knowledge of the world and his ordinary common sense; or it
40 may be both.
41
42 If it is a natural and ordinary meaning that is contended
43 for, then of course no evidence is admissible in pursuit of
44 what is the natural and ordinary meaning of the words
45 complained of.
46
47 People are not allowed to come and give evidence of what
48 they thought it meant; the publisher is not entitled to say
49 what he intended it to mean; and the court, be it judge or
50 jury, is not entitled to take into account as an aid to
51 deriving meaning from the document, or whatever it is,
52 evidence beyond their knowledge of everyday life.
53
54 That is contrasted with a true or legal innuendo where
55 words innocent on their face may bear a meaning which is
56 defamatory in the eyes of people who have special
57 knowledge. There is a famous example -- I did not think of
58 it -- of such a case, and one can think of a myriad of
59 examples -- the words are: "Mr. Smith was seen going into
60 number 13 St. John Street"; those are the words complained
