Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 22
1 that it could not really be strengthening and
2 that the claim for its use on this ground was
3 positively absurd, it was held that such a
4 statement imputed either dishonesty or
5 fraudulent incapacity in the conduct of the
6 plaintiff's business, and was therefore
7 defamatory."
8
9 Then comes the example of one of the cases we have in the
10 bundle.
11
12 "On the other hand, an advertisement cautioning
13 the public that the plaintiff's 'self-acting
14 tallow syphons and lubricators wasted the
15 tallow' was held not to be a libel on the
16 plaintiff either generally or in the way of his
17 trade, but only a reflection on the goods sold
18 by him which was not actionable without proof of
19 (malice and of) special damage."
20
21 My Lord, we believe that to succeed in this case on
22 this part of the leaflet, on the argument today, we have to
23 persuade your Lordship that the words printed there in the
24 context of the leaflet as a whole impute to McDonald's one
25 or other or more of those four categories of misconduct by
26 a trader which I enumerated a moment ago. It would be
27 idle, perhaps, to state that we do not have any difficulty
28 doing that. But that is what we believe the principle to
29 be.
30
31 So, whatever precise meaning those words bear, to meat in a
32 sense the first part of what your Lordship was putting this
33 morning, which is are those words in context defamatory at
34 all, the answer must plainly be that they are. Whether
35 they impute incompetence, inefficiency, negligence,
36 recklessness or dishonesty -- and, as we would say,
37 certainly the latter two and probably, most forcibly, the
38 last, dishonesty -- they are defamatory.
39
40 So the next question which your Lordship must also decide
41 at this stage of the case is: what is the actual meaning
42 which those words in their context would convey to the
43 ordinary reasonable man in the street; and when I say man
44 in the street, for once it is meant literally; at any rate,
45 for some of the readers of this leaflet. I will come back
46 to him and try and bring him to life perhaps a little later
47 on.
48
49 What I would like to do next is just to whizz through the
50 authorities.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Shall we take the break I promised there? Do
53 you want the ten minutes rather than the five?
54
55 MS. STEEL: Yes. I have quite a few bits tht I did not manage
56 to get down. Thank you.
57
58 (Short Adjournment)
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, just before I start on the authorities,
