Cases

H v Tomlinson

Held

(1) The existing law on justification was applied and the decision to grant the Defendant summary judgment on the defence of justification was upheld.

(2) Whilst the claim regarding the Claimant's Article 8 right to reputation was independent of the claim in libel, it was doomed to failure for the same reason: the admitted acts of violence meant that the Claimant could have no right to vindicate his reputation in regard to an accusation that he was violent. This case was distinguished from W v Westminster City Council where Tugendhat J found that even though a defamation claim failed, the Claimant still had a right to a remedy for the breach of his Article 8 right to reputation because in the instant case the sting of the allegation was true (whereas in W there had only been a finding that the allegation complained of was protected by qualified privilege).

(3) The allegation concerned wrongdoing and therefore was not private even though it occurred in the Claimant's home.

Also