Cases

Vassiliev v Frank Cass & Co Ltd

Held

(1) Common interest privilege applied. The article was published in a specialist journal with a specialist and exclusive readership. Eady J drew attention to the dissenting judgment of Lord Denning MR in Drummond-Jackson v BMA [1970] 1 WLR 688 CA. That the article was also available in libraries and on websites did not affect the claim as casual readers or surfers would not in practice read the article. (2) The Defendant's allegations were a proportionate response to the attack on Mr Hiss. It did not matter that the Defendant was not a representative or close relative of Mr Hiss, being a friend of his with a long-standing interest was sufficient. It did not matter that the victim of the attack would not have had a cause of action in libel. (3) Having ruled in favour of the Defendant on (1) and (2), Eady J held that he did not need to resolve the issue of Reynolds.

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