Corcoran v W. R Jacob and Company, Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1945
• Date: 01 January 1945
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.),

Corcoran

and

W. & R. Jacob and Company, Ltd.

Privilege - Malice - Honest belief - Witness's demeanour under cross-examination - Allegation of falsity of plaintiff's case -Obstinate adherence to belief in truth of defamatory words - Plaintiff assaulted shortly before slander -Whether evidence of malice - Jury awarding damages for slander and assault - Damages not segregated - Slander verdict reversed on appeal -Case remitted to High Court to assess damages for assault.

The defendants, a limited company engaged in the manufacture and sale of biscuits and confectionery, employed the plaintiff as a storekeeper. In the course of his work the plaintiff left the defendants' premises on messages for them, and, while so engaged, purchased a small shovel on his own behalf. On his return to the defendants' premises he carried the shovel inserted in his dungarees in such a way that only a portion of it was visible. At the request of N., a commissionaire in the defendants' employment, the plaintiff agreed to allow N. to search him as soon as certain other employees had left the immediate vicinity. N.then attempted to assist the plaintiff in removing the shovel from his person and, in doing so, pulled the plaintiff's clothes about violently and slightly damaged them. The plaintiff thereupon refused to allow N. to continue the search. Some time later N., in the presence of the plaintiff and another employee, made a verbal report to S., a welfare officer of the defendant company, in the course of which he stated: "It was a piece of copper ten or twelve inches long that [the plaintiff] had." In an action for slander and assault the plaintiff alleged that the words used imputed larceny to him. At the trial the plaintiff gave no evidence of malice, and on the trial Judge's ruling that the words were spoken on a privileged occasion, the plaintiff sought...