Then, as to the special damage laid. I certainly agree that mere apprehension of damage would not be a sufficient statement; but here a promise has been laid. It is argued that no averment of the promisor’s intention to perform it has been made, but I think it must be taken that he intended to perform it, until the contrary be shown. In cases of actions for breach of promise, as, for instance, of marriage, there is never any allegation contained to that effect, nor could it be maintained that, without such an averment, the pleading would not be sufficient.
Then follows an allegation here that, by reason of the speaking of the words, the promisor retracted his promise, and broke off his treaty of giving the plaintiff funds to enable her to emigrate. Now, if the words stopped there, I think there is no question whatever but there was special damage sustained by the breach of a promise which must have been beneficial to the plaintiff. The demurrer must be overruled.
MILLER v. DAVID
In the Common Pleas, January 20, 1874.
Reported in Law Reports, 9 Common Pleas, 1187.
The first count stated that the defendant falsely and maliciously published of the plaintiff, a stone-mason, and employed as such in certain works carried on by one Mayberry, these words: “He was the ringleader of the nine-hours system,” whereby and by means of which premises the plaintiff was injured in his occupation of a stone-mason, and was discharged from his said employment at the said works, to wit, the Old Castle Iron and Tin Plate Works, and was without and could not obtain employment for a considerable time, and could get no employment but one of less value to the plaintiff, the place of employment being distant from his place of abode, and his necessary meals thereby becoming more costly, and such place of employment being exposed to wet weather.
The second count was similar, except that the words spoken were: “He has ruined the town by bringing about the nine hours system, and he has stopped several good jobs from being carried out, by being the ringleader of the system at Llanelly.”
Demurrer, on the ground that the words were not in themselves defamatory, and that special damage consequent thereon, therefore, gave no action. Joinder in demurrer.[[535]]
Jan. 20. The judgment of the court (Lord Coleridge, C. J., and Keating, Brett, and Denman, JJ.) was delivered by
Lord Coleridge, C. J. In this case time was taken to consider our judgment, from the wish entertained by at least one member of the court to hold, if there were authority for the proposition, that a statement false and malicious made by one person in regard to another, whereby that other might probably, under some circumstances, and at the hands of some persons, suffer damage, would, if the damage resulted in fact, support an action for defamation. No proposition less wide in its terms than this would support the present declaration; for to call a man “the ringleader of the nine hours system,” and to say of him that he “had ruined a place by bringing about that system,” could not under many circumstances and at the hands of many people do the subject of such statement any damage at all. But we are unable to find any authority for a proposition so wide and general in its terms as would alone support this action.[[536]]
The rule, as laid down by De Grey, C. J., in Onslow v. Horne, that words are actionable if they be of probable ill consequence to a person in a trade or profession, or an office, is expressly disapproved of by the Court of Exchequer in Lumby v. Allday. Bayley, B., there says: “Every authority which I have been able to find either shows the want of some general requisite, as honesty, capacity, fidelity, or the like, or connects the imputation with the plaintiff’s office, trade, or business.” In that case, the words proved were a very strong imputation on the morality of the plaintiff, who was a clerk to a gas company. But the court held them not actionable, because the imputation conveyed by them did not imply the want of any of those qualities which a clerk ought to possess, and because the imputation had no reference to his conduct as clerk. That case and the language of Bayley, B., in delivering the judgment of the court, have since been repeatedly approved of, and are really decisive of this case.
The words before us are not actionable in themselves. No expression in them was argued to be so except the word “ringleader;” and, as to that, it is sufficient perhaps to say that Dr. Johnson points out the mistake of supposing that the word is by any means necessarily a word of bad import; for, amongst other authorities, he cites Barrow as calling St. Peter the “ringleader” of the Apostles.[[537]] Neither are the words connected with the trade or profession of the plaintiff, either by averment or by implication; so that, on neither ground can the declaration be supported. There is no averment here that the consequence which followed was intended by the defendant as the result of his words; and therefore it is not necessary to consider the question which was suggested on the argument, whether words not in themselves actionable or defamatory spoken under circumstances and to persons likely to create damage to the subject of the words, are, when the damage follows, ground of action. The judgment of Lord Wensleydale in Lynch v. Knight, 9 H. L. C., at p. 600, appears in favor of the affirmative of this question. But it is not necessary for us, for the reasons given, to express any opinion upon it; and upon this demurrer there must be judgment for the defendant.