Cases

W v JH & A County Council Limited

Held

(1) The relationship between the parties was not such that it was clear that this was an ‘off the peg’ case where no investigation of the circumstances was required in order to determine whether publication was privileged; Kearns v General Council of the Bar applied.

(2) The historic nature of the information was a relevant factor in considering whether a duty to publish arose; Ley v Hamilton [1935] 153 LTR 384 considered. There may be no duty where an ex-employer had given the employee an assurance of the sort given in this case, or where it had held the information on file for an unreasonably long period of time. The provisions of Data Protection Act 1998, Criminal Justice Act 2003 and Article 8 ECHR may be relevant in this context.

(3) Given the pleaded context of publication, the words were capable of bearing the meanings pleaded by the Claimant.

Also