A Manual of Common Law and Bankruptcy (Electronic book text)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3CHAPTER III. OF SECURITY TO CHARACTER AND REPUTATION. Part I. One of the most precious rights concerning ' the person, is that of security to character and reputation. This may be injuriously Defamation, affected by defamation, which is of two kinds; namely, libel and oral slander. LIhel defined. Distinction In effect of verbal and written slander. Section I. textit{Of Libel or Written Slander. Libel is a slander in writing, or in print, or by pictorial or other representation. (Wharton; Starkie on Libel, Introd.; Selw. N. P. 1049.) Libel is deemed a greater injury than oral slander, inasmuch as oral slander is sudden and fleeting, whereas libel is deliberate, permanent, and in general propagated farther. Hence, a vague imputation of dishonesty, if oral, is not actionable, unless the imputationhad reference to the business of the person Pakt I. defamed, and had the effect of damaging Sec. I. him in it. But such an imputation, if published in. writing or in print, even without reference to his business, and without proof of any evil resulting from it, is actionable. (Add. Torts, 576; Selw. N. P. 1049.) A person libelled will not be entitled to Publication, an action, unless the libel be published. But parting with a libellous print or writing in order that it may become known, or the making a libel known to any third person, amounts to a publication. (Broom Com. 719, 729, 730; Selw. N. P. 1062.) All written or printed publications which what printed'or tend to preiudice the private character or written puh- 1 J A hcations are credit of another, or to render a person ridi- llbellous, culous or contemptible, or to cause him to be hated, feared, or avoided, or to injure him in his business, are libellous; and an action for damages is maintainable against the write...