Odger's English Common Law

542 DEFAMATION.
Actions of this kind may be grouped under three heads :
1. Slander of title.
2. "Words which disparage the goods manufactured or sold
hv another.
3. Other words which have occasioned loss to the plaintiff.
1. Slander of Title.
This term is usually employed to include all statements,
whether written or spoken, which impeach a man's title to
any property. Such words clearly do not affect his reputa-
tion ;
for his character would stand equally high whether he
owned that property or not. When the plaintiff possesses
property, and any one maliciously comes forward and falsely
denies or impugns the plaintiff's title to it, an action lies to
recover any damage thereby caused to the plaintiff. It
makes no difference whether the defendant's words be spoken,
written or printed, save as affecting the amount of
damages. The property may be either real or personal ; and
the plaintiff's estate or interest in it may be either in posses-
sion or reversion. It need not be even a vested interest, so
long as it is anything that is saleable or that has a market
value.
The words must be false ; if there be such a flaw in the
plaintiff's title as the defendant asserts, no action lies.
Next the statement must be malicious ; if it be made in the
honest assertion of the defendant's own right—real or
supposed—to the property, no action lies. But whenever a
man unnecessarily intermeddles in the affairs of others with
which he has no concern, such officious interference will be
•deemed malicious and he will be liable, if damage follow.
Lastly, special damage must be proved and shown to have
arisen from the defendant's words. And for this purpose it
is generally necessary for the plaintiff to prove that he was
in the act of letting or selling his property, and that the
•defendant by his words prevented an intending tenant or
purchaser from taking a lease or completing the purchase.
The special damage must always be such as naturally or
reasonably arises from the use of the words. 1
i Eaddan v. Lott (1854), 15 0. B. 411.
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