{"id":5132,"date":"2018-03-07T09:26:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T09:26:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-08-15T15:17:36","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T15:17:36","slug":"penfold-v-westcote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/penfold-v-westcote.php","title":{"rendered":"Penfold v Westcote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penfold v Westcote [1806] 2 B&P (NR) 335<\/strong><\/p>\n

Libel; imputation of crime; words capable of defamation<\/p>\n

(270 words)<\/p>\n

Facts<\/h3>\n

The defendant said the following about the claimant: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come out you blackguard rascal, scoundral, Penfold, you are a thief\u201d<\/em>. The trial judge directed the jury that it was for the defendant to prove that by using the word \u2018thief\u2019 he did not imply the need to charge the claimant with a felony. The jury found in favour of the claimant.<\/p>\n

Issues<\/h3>\n

The defendant appealed to have the verdict set aside. He argued that the words and expressions surrounding the word \u2018thief\u2019 proved that the he did not intend to impute felony \u2013 he only used the word in the heat of the moment. He further claims that no evidence was put forward, which would have shown that anyone else understood the word \u2018thief\u2019 to imply the need to charge the claimant with a crime.<\/p>\n

Decision\/Outcome<\/h3>\n

Unless the jury found that the defendant intended to imply that the claimant was to be charged with theft, it should not have found in favour of the claimant. The jury should consider the manner in which the words used were pronounced and also other circumstances, which could explain the meaning of the word. If the jury found that the word \u2018thief\u2019 was merely used as general abuse, they should have dismissed the claimant\u2019s case. All in all, however, if someone calls another a \u2018thief\u2019 together with other names of general abuse (that would not normally impute crime), then \u2013 in the absence of any evidence to support any other meaning of the word \u2018thief\u2019 \u2013 the jury can find for the claimant as the word \u2018thief\u2019 is actionable in itself as imputing theft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The defendant said the following about the claimant: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come out you blackguard rascal, scoundral, Penfold, you are a thief\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-5132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-au-law"],"yoast_head":"\nPenfold v Westcote | LawTeacher.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The defendant said the following about the claimant: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come out you blackguard rascal, scoundral, Penfold, you are a thief\u201d.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/penfold-v-westcote.php\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" 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