Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 33


     
     1
     2        Then, my Lord, at the bottom of page 9 -- and this, again,
     3        is important.  I know your Lordship knows this, but it is,
     4        we believe, as well as to notice it specifically.
     5
     6             "(9) The court is not at this stage concerned
     7             with merit or demerits of any possible defence."
     8
     9        Then Lewis v. Daily Telegraph, which is the next divider
    10        number 2.  I am not, if your Lordship will forgive me, very
    11        often going to read the headnotes to these cases unless
    12        they actually assist in the decision your Lordship has to
    13        make.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL: No.
    16
    17   MR. RAMPTON:  The question in the case, as your Lordship will
    18        remember, was whether the words used in that particular
    19        case were capable of imputing guilt to the plaintiffs as
    20        opposed to suspicion.  That is not, we would respectfully
    21        submit, a question which really arises in this case
    22        because, if this leaflet does anything at all, it imputes
    23        guilt; it is couched in terms of factual assertion,
    24        accusation and uncertainty.
    25
    26        So, for that purpose, the Lewis case is perhaps not all
    27        that useful.  My Lord, there is a passage in the middle of
    28        page 258.  Actually, at the top is probably where one
    29        should start.  And it is very trite learning, so having
    30        read one such passage perhaps I need not read others.  This
    31        is Lord Reid.
    32
    33             "The gist of the two paragraphs is that the
    34             police, the City Fraud Squad, were inquiring
    35             into the appellant's affairs.  There is no doubt
    36             that in actions for libel the question is what
    37             the words would convey to the ordinary man:  it
    38             is not one of construction in the legal sense."
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:  Sorry, what page?
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  258.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL: In divider 2.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, I have got it.
    47
    48   MS. STEEL:   Which paragraph?
    49
    50   MR. RAMPTON:  The first big paragraph at the top of the page. 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Starting at the end of the second line: "There 
    53        is no doubt...."
    54
    55   MR. RAMPTON: "There is no doubt that in actions for libel
    56             the question is what the words would convey to
    57             the ordinary man: it is not one of construction
    58             in the legal sense.  The ordinary man does not
    59             live in an ivory tower and he is not inhibited
    60             by a knowledge of the rules of construction.  So

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