High Court of Australia
Meher
ensland AUDMR 121 P 596 11 CLR.] OF AUSTRALIA. 63 (HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.] RONALD. i . Z F : ' . APPELLANT; PLAINTIFF, AND HARPER. 7 : = . i . RESPONDENT. DEFENDANT,
ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA.
Defamation—Slander—Libel—Defamatory words concerning professional man— H.C. or A. Olergyman — Politician — Privilege — Justification — Repetition of defamatory 1910. statement—Trrial by jury—Validity of findings—A ppeal from Supreme Court = —— of @ State—Admission of further evidence—Jurisdiction of High Court—Ver- MuLBOURNE, dict obtained on perjured evidence. Aug. 30, 31;
Sept. 2, 5, 6.
By the law of Victoria, in order that defamatory words which tend to
injure a person in respect of his business or profession may be actionable fmf, Gnu? without proof of special damage, they must have been spoken of him in the Connor JJ. way of that business or profession.
Where one says that he has heard a statement defamatory of another, repeating it, if the circumstances of the repetition are such as to show that the speaker does not give the defamatory statement his own authority, the speaker may, in an action against him for defamation, if the repetition is justifiable, rely on the truth of the actual words spoken by him although the defamatory statement is untrue.
Where defamatory words are spoken on a privileged occasion the presump- tion arising from the occasion that the speaker had a proper motive will con- tinue until displaced by proof of the presence of an improper motive.
'A wrong finding by a jury on one issue does not necessarily vitiate their findings on other issues.
R., who was a member of Parliament and alsoa minister of the Presbyterian Church, was about to stand for re-election, During a discussion as to his
H.C. or A. 1910.
RoxaLp w Harper.
HIGH COURT 'ig
chances of re-election, H. said that he had been informed that R. had be rebuked by some members of the Labour Party for using improper langu
We try to embed the page this law was scraped from. If the site blocks framing, you still get the link and a local excerpt.
Last checked with source on —
Checking whether the official page can be embedded…
Plain-English simplify of this law: a short summary, key points, and both sides of the argument. Generated on first view via Replicate, then cached. Vote on what helps your study.
No study brief is cached for this law yet. Sign up to generate a plain-English brief.
Sign up to generate