Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 47
1 or its financial stability.
2
3 Then the last two cases are those two old cases from the
4 middle of the last century about, first of all, tallow
5 syphons in and -- the first is Evans v. Harlow, and that is
6 at tab 10. Your Lordship has read this case and the words
7 complained of. I believe your Lordship shares my
8 surprise ---
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: -- that it was not a libel. At all events, I do
13 not believe that I need to read it. But, plainly, it would
14 not be a libel on a tradesman to say that there were minor
15 defects in his goods which he was not aware of, unless that
16 imputed incompetence or negligence, which it would be
17 unlikely to do. Beyond that, my Lord, I bound to say that
18 I share the doubts of the learned editor of Gatley whether
19 one can lay down a hard and fast rule that knowledge of the
20 defect must be imputed before you can have a libel.
21
22 One does notice in the next case, tab 11,
23 Broomfield v. Greig, that in the judgment of the Lord
24 President on page 465, in the first paragraph of the
25 judgment -- I have passed on now to tab 11.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: The bit that you quoted before or summarised in the
28 last one, is there an actual section where it says that?
29
30 MR. RAMPTON: Says what?
31
32 MR. MORRIS: Whatever you said about not libellous to say minor
33 defects, and knowledge of defects is necessary for libel,
34 and things like that. Is there a specific paragraph which
35 sums up? I look at it as a blank.
36
37 MR. RAMPTON: I am sorry, I am not going to read all that. The
38 relevant passages, my Lord, are at the bottom of 1387, the
39 last line, the last three words, going through to the end
40 of the first paragraph on 1388, the last sentence of the
41 judgment of Patteson J. on page 1388, the sentence
42 beginning: "This is not in effect a caution against the
43 Plaintiff".
44
45 MR. MORRIS: Where does it say that?
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is towards the end of that long paragraph.
48
49 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
50
51 MR. RAMPTON: "This is not in effect a caution against the
52 Plaintiff as a tradesman in the habit of selling goods
53 which he knows to be bad", and so on, down to the end of
54 that paragraph; and then in the judgment of Whiteman J.,
55 where he says: "Those who have really adopted",
56 etcetera, "there it is not alleged that the Plaintiff knew
57 the syphons to be such as described. If they had the
58 defects imputed he may have been unconscious of it." That
59 distinguishes this case from the other one.
60
