At the close of the arguments, the following question was propounded to the Judges: Assuming the evidence given by the plaintiffs’ witnesses to be correct, was there any evidence of a cause of action fit to be left to the jury?
Mathew, J., and Wright, J., answered the question in the negative; and the other six Judges in the affirmative.
After the delivery of the opinions of the Judges, the House took time for consideration.
Dec. 14, 1897. Lord Halsbury, L. C.... The first objection made to the plaintiff’s right to recover for the loss which they thus undoubtedly suffered is that no right of the plaintiffs was infringed, and that the right contended for on their behalf is not a right recognized by law, or, at all events, only such a right as every one else is entitled to deprive them of if they stop short of physical violence or obstruction. I think the right to employ their labor as they will is a right both recognized by the law and sufficiently guarded by its provisions to make any undue interference with that right an actionable wrong.
Very early authorities in the law have recognized the right; and, in my view, no authority can be found which questions or qualifies it. The schoolmaster who complained that his scholars were being assaulted and brought an action, the quarry owner who complained that his servants were being menaced and molested, were both held to have a right of action. And it appears to me that the importance of those cases, and the principle established by them, have not been sufficiently considered. It is said that threats of violence or actual violence were unlawful means: the lawfulness of the means I will discuss hereafter. But the point on which these cases are important is the existence of the right. It was not the schoolmaster who was assaulted; it was not the quarry owner who was assaulted or threatened; but, nevertheless, the schoolmaster was held entitled to bring an action in respect of the loss of scholars attending his school, and the quarry owner in respect of the loss of workmen to his quarry. They were third persons; no violence or threats were applied to them, and the cause of action, which they had a right to insist on, was the indirect effect upon themselves of violence and threats applied to others.
My Lords, in my view these are binding authorities to show that the preliminary question, namely, whether there was any right of the plaintiffs to pursue their calling unmolested, must be answered in the affirmative. The question of what is the right invaded would seem to be reasonably answered, and the universality of the right to all Her Majesty’s subjects seems to me to be no argument against its existence. It is, indeed, part of that freedom from restraint, that liberty of action, which, in my view, may be found running through the principles of our law.
First it is said that the company were acting within their legal rights in discharging the plaintiffs. So they were; but does that affect the question of the responsibility of the person who caused them so to act by the means he used? The scholars who went away from the school were entitled to do so. The miners were entitled to cease working at the quarry. The natives were entitled to avoid running the risk of being shot; but the question is, What was the cause of their thus exercising their legal right?
The question must be whether what was done in fact, and what did in fact procure the dismissal of the plaintiff, was an actionable wrong or not. I have never heard that a man who was dismissed from his service by reason of some slander could not maintain an action against the slanderer because the master had a legal right to discharge him.