Cases

Adelson v Associated Newspapers Ltd (No 3)

Held

Dismissing Ds' applications:

D stated clearly in court that it believed in the truth of the plea of justification. On this basis, Cs' application to strike out the defence could not succeed. However, it also followed from this that the court would not permit D to make a statement in court - asserting that the allegations complained of by Cs were unfounded - which D believed to be false. Since the proposed statement was a key element of the open offer, as matters stood, the offer was incapable of performance and so could not be accepted. This conclusion was sufficient to dispose of D's application. However, D's proposal as to costs presented a further reason for dismissing the application: it rendered the open offer too uncertain to be capable of binding acceptance.

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