Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Duncan Keir, proprietor and manager of the Caledonian Temperance Hotel, Cow-caddens Street, Glasgow, raised an action of damages for slander against the proprietors and publishers of the Evening Times.

The alleged slander was contained in a paragraph which appeared in the issue of the Evening Times of 9th May 1913, which stated that the pursuer had failed to answer to a charge of having used his hotel for improper purposes, that he had been liberated on bail of £20, that the bail money had been forfeited, and that a warrant had been issued for his apprehension.

The pursuer averred that his business had been an increasing one, but that it had been injured by the alleged slander, and had fallen off in consequence thereof.

The defenders sought a diligence for the recovery of documents, and, inter alia, they called for production of “the receipts for income tax paid by the pursuer during the period between December 1910 and June 1913.”

The pursuer objected to this call, and at the discussion the following authorities were referred to:— Gray v. Wylie, February 25, 1904, 6 F, 448, 41 S.L.R. 342; Christie v. Craik, March 7, 1900, 2 F. 1287, 37 S.L.R. 503; Macdonald v. Hedderwick & Sons, March 16, 1901, 3 F. 674, 38 S.L.R. 455; Johnston v. Caledonian Railway Company, December 22, 1892, 20 R. 222, 30 S.L.R. 222; Craig v. North British Railway Company, July 3, 1888, 15 R. 808, 25 S.L.R. 600.

The Lord Ordinary, in refusing the call for income-tax receipts, stated that on a review of the authorities he found the latest case, viz., Gray v. Wylie ( supra), directly in point and against granting the call, and that the law as laid down by Lord Adam in that case clearly applied to the present case.