High Court of Australia
Appl
asAnon | ''iPlan y
Iuematonal v Conan
elstra Corp 33) (2002) Lid (1998) 4
ud liSosi BEAST
234 HIGH COURT
[HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]
DAVID SYME & CO. AND ANOTHER . . APPELLANTS ; DEFENDANTS,
AND
CANAVAN z i 4 " z 3 . RESPONDENT. PLAINTIFF,
ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA.
Defamation—Libel—Statement as to class of persons—Necessary reference to plaintiff —Bvidence.
On the hearing of an action for libel in respect of a statement in a newspaper
report of a public meeting, that one of the speakers had said of an association
MELBOURNE, of returned soldiers opposed to conscription that it "was only about 100 Sept. 9, 13. strong, and these individuals had been sent back to Australia as undesirables," eae evidence had been given to the effect that the association had about 1,000 mem- Tete a bers of whom the plaintiff was one. The jury having found that the words Rich 33.
complained of were defamatory but that they did not refer to the plaintiff, a new trial had been granted on the ground that the words were not capable of any other meaning than that they referred to the plaintiff.
Held, that, on the evidence, the words were reasonably capable of meaning that about 100 men, whom the speaker believed to be all the members who composed the association, were undesirables ; that with such a meaning they did not necessarily refer to the plaintiff, and, therefore, that the verdiet of the jury should stand.
Decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria reversed.
Apprat from the Supreme Court of Victoria. An action was brought in the Supreme Court by James Richard Canavan against David Syme & Co..and Thomas Prosser, the
=
25 C.L.R.J OF AUSTRALIA. 235
proprietors and printer respectively of the Age newspaper, claiming H- ©. or A. damages for libel. The material words complained of as being a a libel appeared in the issue of the Age of 12th December 1917, in a Davin Syme report of the proceedings at a public meeting, and were as follows:— " Bee "Sergeant Wallish, D.C.M., on rising to speak was loudly cheered. C4¥AVAN. He said that the Returned Soldiers' No-Conscription League was
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