Day 077 - 25 Jan 95 - Page 07
1 impossible that it should have the same effect, because a
2 firm or company as such cannot have indecent or vulgar
3 manners. Therefore, although the law is the same with
4 regard to libel on a firm or company as with regard to
5 libel on a person, the conditions under which the
6 particular statement can be libellous may not exist with
7 regard to them. There are other statements which would
8 have the same effect, whether they were made with regard to
9 a person, or a firm, or a company; as, for instance,
10 statements with regard to conduct of business." My Lord,
11 I stress those words. "It may be published of a man in
12 business that he conducts his business in a manner which
13 shows him to be a foolish or incapable man of business.
14 That would be a libel on him in the way of his business, as
15 it is called - that is to say, with regard to his conduct
16 of his business. If what is stated relates to the goods in
17 which he deals, the jury would have to consider whether the
18 statement is such as to import a statement as to his
19 conduct in business. Suppose the plaintiff was a merchant
20 who dealt in wine, and it was stated that wine which he had
21 for sale of a particular vintage was not good wine; that
22 might be so stated as only to import that the wine of the
23 particular year was not good in whosesoever hands it
24 was, but not to imply any reflection on his conduct of his
25 business. In that case the statement would be with regard
26 to his goods only, and there would be no libel, although
27 such a statement, if it were false and were made
28 maliciously, with intention to injure him, and it did
29 injure him, might be made the subject of an action on the
30 case". My Lord, that is to say, an action for injurious
31 falsehood of which, of course, no complaint is made in the
32 case before your Lordship.
33
34 "On the other hand, if the statement were so made as to
35 import that his judgment in the selection of wine was bad,
36 it might import a reflection on his conduct of his
37 business, and show that he was an inefficient man of
38 business. If so, it would be a libel. In such a case a
39 jury would have to say which sense the libel really bore;
40 if they thought it related to the goods only, they ought to
41 find that it was not a libel; but, if they thought that it
42 related to the man's conduct of business, they ought to
43 find that it was a libel. With regard to a firm or a
44 company, it is impossible to lay down an exhaustive rule as
45 to what would be a libel on them. But the same rule is
46 applicable to a statement made with regard to them.
47 Statements may be made with regard to their mode of
48 carrying on business, such as to lead people of ordinary
49 sense to the opinion that they conduct their business badly
50 and inefficiently. If so, the law will be the same in
51 their case as in that of an individual, and the statement
52 will be libelous". Then he goes on to the question of
53 damages.
54
55 My Lord, our submission is this, though it is not entirely
56 easy of comprehension and it certainly has not been
57 clarified by the Defendants what their case is in this
58 regard, it would appear, we would submit, with some clarity
59 when one looks at the thing carefully, that the last part,
60 those last four paragraphs, of Dr. Dealer's statement
