Gilpin v Fowler
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 09 February 1854 |
| Date | 09 February 1854 |
| Court | Exchequer |
English Reports Citation: 156 E.R. 263
IN THE COURTS OF EXCHEQUER AND EXCHEQUER CHAMBER
S. C. 23 L. J. Ex. 152, 18 Jur. 292, 2 W. R. 272. Referred to, Clark v Molyneax, 1877, 3 Q. B. D. 245.
9 EX. 615. GILPIN V. FOWLER 263 [615] gilpin v fowler Feb 9, 1854 -The plaintiff was master of a "national school" in the parish of C., of which the defendant was rector, and also one of the managers of the school The defendant requested the plaintiff to teach a Sunday school in connexion with the national school, which he declined, on account of the increased labour, and was in consequence dismissed The plaintiff being about to set up a school on his own account in the same parish, the defendant wrote, and distributed in that and the adjoining parish a pastoral letter, in which he denounced the plaintiff's conduct as unchnstian-lilce, and warned his panshioners against affording any countenance to the projected school, either by subscriptions or by sending their children to it The Judge at the trial having ruled that this letter was a privileged communication, and that, there being no evidence of express malice, the defendant was entitled to a verdict:-Held, in the Exchequer Chamber, on a bill of exceptions to the above ruling, that the communication was not privileged, and that there was evidence for the jury of express malice; also, that in determining the question of malice the jury might look at the libel itself. [S. C. 23 L. J. Ex. 152 , 18 Jur. 292 , 2 W. R. 272. Referred to, Clark v Molyneux, 1877, 3 Q. B. D 245.] Case. The first count of the declaration stated, that, before the publishing of the libel in that count mentioned, the plaintiff had carried on the business of a schoolmaster for the obtaining of his livelihood, and had been master of a certain school; thai, at the time of publishing the libel, the plaintiff had ceased to be master of such school, but was then projecting the keeping of arid about to keep a certain other school Yet the defendant, intending to injure the plaintiff in the way of his said business, on &c., falsely and maliciously published of and concerning the plaintiff, and of and concerning him in the way of his business of a schoolmaster, and of and concerning the said project of keeping the said school, and of and concerning the said projected school, a false, malicious, and defamatory libel, purporting to be an address to the parishioners of Crawley from the defendant, containing (amongst other things) the false, scandalous, malicious, and defamatory matter following of and concerning the plaintiff, and of and concerning him in his said business of a schoolmaster &c., that is to say, " The very attempt (meaning the said project) betrays a spirit of opposition to authority, and is a justification of the conduct of the managers of the school, who have nevertheless thereby incurred no little odium No rightly disposed Christian, who receives in simple faith the teaching of inspiration, ' Obey them who have the rule over you, and submit yourselves/ can expect God's blessing to rest upon such an undertaking (meaning the said projected school). [616] Under these circumstances, I (meaning the defendant) conceive it to by my duty to warn all my parishioners against affording any countenance whatever to the projected new school (meaning the school which the plaintiff so projected), either in the case of the richer by subscriptions, or of the poor by sending their children to it for instruction. It (meaning the said projected school) will be, to all intents and purposes, a schismatical school, for its (meaning the said projected school's) tendency will be to produce disunion and schism in a matter which, of all others, requires union-the education of the children of the poor. Those who aid and abet him (meaning the plaintiff) in aay way, will be partakers with him (meaning the plaintiff) in his (meaning the plaintiffs) evil deeds ' Mark them (meaning, amongst others, the plaintiff) which cause divisions and offences, and avoid them' (meaning, amongst others, the plaintiff), Romans xvi. v. 17 I have thus performed a necessary though a very irksome duty. I now leave you to take your own courses-' forewarned, fore-armed ;' and in humble hope, that the God of peace and union may take us all into his holy keeping, may prosper what seems conducive, overrule what seems opposed to his own glory and our edification in Christ." By reason whereof the plaintiff was greatly injured in his credit and reputation as a schoolmaster. The second count charged the publication of the same libel whilst the plaintiff was keeping his school. Plea,-Not guilty. The cause was tried before Pollock, C. B, at the Middlesex Sittings after last Easter Term, when the plaintiff gave the following evidence :-The plaintiff was a schoolmaster, and for some time previously to October, 18.51, kept a school at Crawley, 264 GILPIN V. FOWLER 9 EX. 617. in the county of Sussex. Crawley and Ifield are adjoining parishes, and one side of the village of Crawley is in the parish of Crawley, and the other in the parish of Ifield. In October, 1831, there was [617] and from thence hitherto has been, a national school on the principles of the established Church of England, and supported partly by subscriptions of the richer parishioners of...
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Blackshaw v Lord
...the word "privilege" as meaning the existence of a set of circumstances in which the presumption of malice was negatived. It was said in Gilpin v. Fowler, (1854) 9 Exchequer Cases 615, at p.623, that "instead of the expression privileged communication it would be more correct to say that th......
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Loutchansky v Times Newspapers Ltd
...as meaning the existence of a set of circumstances in which the presumption of malice was negatived. It was said in Gilpin v Fowler (1854) 9 Exch 615, 623–624: 'Instead of the expression 'privileged communication' it would be more correct to say that the communication was made on an occasio......
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Percival James Patterson v Cliff Hughes and Nationwide News Network Ltd
...as meaning the existence of a set of circumstances in which the presumption of malice was negatived. It was said in Gilpin v. Fowler (1854) 9 Exch 615 – 623–624 that instead of the expression ‘privileged communication’ it would be more correct to say the communication was made on an occasio......
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Charles James Cooke and Thomas Phipps Austin against Henry Atkinson Wildes
...is for the jury. That was the course pursued in Woodward v. Lander (6 G. & P. 548); and the same [336] rule appears from Gilpin v. Fowler (9 Exch. 615). The words which are in excess of the privilege may be put to the jury as shewing that the whole is malicious. Tuson v. Evans (12 A. & E. 7......