Odger's English Common Law

Chapter IX.
DEFAMATION.
We pass now to consider acts which are injurious to the
reputation of an individual. And first among these we must
place the publication of defamatory words. Such publication
will give rise to an action either of libel or of slander accord-
ing to the circumstances. If the words be written or printed
or recorded in any other permanent form, the plaintiff's
proper remedy will be an action of libel; if on the other
hand the words be merely spoken, his action, if any, will
be an action of slander. In either case the words must
be defamatory, i.e., such as the law deems injurious to the
reputation of the plaintiff. But it is not by words alone
that a man's reputation can be injured. Thus a statue, a
picture or a caricature may be a libel ; so may a chalk mark
on a wall, a waxwork figure, an effigy or any other con-
tumelious sign of a more or less permanent character.
In order to decide in any given case whether the words are
defamatory we must first discover what meaning they con-
veyed to those who read or heard them. This must depend
mainly on the words themselves, but also to some extent on
the plaintiff's office, profession or trade, and on all the
surrounding circumstances. No general rule can be laid down
defining absolutely and once for all what words are defamatory
and what are not. Words which would seriously injure A.'s
reputation might do B.'s no harm. Each case must be decided
on its own facts, and in each case the test is this : Have
the defendant's words appreciably injured the reputation
of the plaintiff ?
But the plaintiff's reputation cannot be injured unless the
defendant's words be communicated to some third person.
If they are written or printed, some one must read them ;
33—2
if