Defamatory Passage
Where the defendant had communicated or published certain defamatory matter against the plaintiff, and later he came to know that he did a mistake.
And if the defendant meets the plaintiff and requests to excuse him, and submits his apology to the plaintiff and if the plaintiff accepts his apology, the dispute is settled amicably between them on a simple apology.
"It is a worthless book, being written by so and so", it is a defamatory statement. The person who commented as above can contend that he made that statement as a fair comment in the interest of public. His argument becomes 'Rolled up plea' and cannot stand until he shows his bona fide intention.
In Merivale v. Carson, [(1887) 20 QB 275], the defamatory passage was the following: "The Whip Hand', the joint production of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Merivale gives us nothing but a hush-up of ingredients which have been used ad nauseum until one rises in protest against the loving, confiding, fatuous, husband with the naughty wife and her double existence, the good male genius, the limp aristocrat and the villainousness foreignar".
It was alleged by the plaintiff that the word pinplained of suggested that the 'naughty wife' was an adulterous wife, when in fact there was no mention of adultery in the play.
The defendant contended that it was a fair comment. It was held by the Court of Appeal that there was essential misdescription of the plaintiff's work, which is something quite different from mere opinions and further held the defendant liable to pay damages to the plaintiff by refusing to accept the defendant's rolling up plea" (i.e. his was a fair comment).
Fair comment is available in respect of expression of opinion whereas justification is available in respect of both facts and opinion. In fair comment it is not necessary to prove the truth of the comment but that the opinion was honestly held.
On the other hand, where justification is pleaded in respect of comments it is not enough that the views were honestly held, but it must also be proved that they were correct views. Distinction is made between justification and fair comment.
And if the defendant meets the plaintiff and requests to excuse him, and submits his apology to the plaintiff and if the plaintiff accepts his apology, the dispute is settled amicably between them on a simple apology.
"It is a worthless book, being written by so and so", it is a defamatory statement. The person who commented as above can contend that he made that statement as a fair comment in the interest of public. His argument becomes 'Rolled up plea' and cannot stand until he shows his bona fide intention.
In Merivale v. Carson, [(1887) 20 QB 275], the defamatory passage was the following: "The Whip Hand', the joint production of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Merivale gives us nothing but a hush-up of ingredients which have been used ad nauseum until one rises in protest against the loving, confiding, fatuous, husband with the naughty wife and her double existence, the good male genius, the limp aristocrat and the villainousness foreignar".
It was alleged by the plaintiff that the word pinplained of suggested that the 'naughty wife' was an adulterous wife, when in fact there was no mention of adultery in the play.
The defendant contended that it was a fair comment. It was held by the Court of Appeal that there was essential misdescription of the plaintiff's work, which is something quite different from mere opinions and further held the defendant liable to pay damages to the plaintiff by refusing to accept the defendant's rolling up plea" (i.e. his was a fair comment).
Fair comment is available in respect of expression of opinion whereas justification is available in respect of both facts and opinion. In fair comment it is not necessary to prove the truth of the comment but that the opinion was honestly held.
On the other hand, where justification is pleaded in respect of comments it is not enough that the views were honestly held, but it must also be proved that they were correct views. Distinction is made between justification and fair comment.
