Monplaisir v The Voice Publishing Company (1953) Ltd et Al

JurisdictionSt Lucia
JudgeBishop, J.
Judgment Date04 April 1968
Neutral CitationLC 1968 HC 8
Docket NumberNo. 49 of 1967
CourtHigh Court (Saint Lucia)
Date04 April 1968

West Indies Associated States Supreme Court. (High Court)

Bishop, J.

No. 49 of 1967

Monplaisir
and
The Voice Publishing Co. (1953) Ltd. et al
Appearances:

Bernard St. John, Kenneth Foster for the plaintiff.

Jack Dear, Q.C., D.A. McNamara for the first and third defendants.

St. George Murray for the second defendant.

Libel and slander - Newspaper article

Facts: The plaintiff alleged that an article published by the defendant newspaper was defamatory. The question for decision was whether the words printed were fair.

Held: The article was published in malice. The defendant knew that the statements were false and that the article amounted to libel. Judgment was given for the plaintiff and damages in the sum $15,562.00 awarded.

Bishop, J.
1

Kenneth Monplaisir, the plaintiff in this action is a barrister-at-law, a solicitor and Notary Royal in this island.

2

On 20 th April 1967, when his declaration was filed, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Chief Executive Officer of the St. Lucia Banana Growers Association Ltd., and a director in the Windward Islands Banana Growers Association.

3

The St. Lucia Banana Growers Association Ltd., (also referred to in this judgment as the Association) is a company registered in this island and enjoying a monopoly on the purchase of all bananas grown in the island for export. The functions of the St. Lucia Banana Growers Association Ltd., are, as stated by the plaintiff, to administer and foster the banana industry of St. Lucia, to take measures for the protection and well-being of growers, to supply several services to growers including the control of leaf-spot and other diseases, buying of bananas from growers, a fertilizing scheme, facilitating the transport of bananas by subsidy from the point of collection to the port. It is a non-profit company.

4

The Windward Islands Banana Growers Association is a corporation which is responsible for certain administrative aspects of the banana industry in the four islands which comprise the Windward Islands.

5

The plaintiff has alleged that the Voice Publishing Co. (1953) Ltd., publishers of the newspaper called “The Voice of St. Lucia” printed and published, or caused to be printed and published in an issue of their newspaper dated 19 th October 1966, a later under the caption “Growers must help Government” containing libelous statements which the plaintiff has claimed were falsely and maliciously printed and published.

6

In addition to the aforementioned Publishing Company there are two other defendants namely, E.C.M. Augustin, a proprietor of Dennery and the author of the letter which appeared in the issue of the 19 th October 1966, and St. Clair Daniel, the editor of the newspaper “The Voice of St. Lucia”.

7

It is the allegation of the plaintiff that as a result of the printing and publishing of the said article, he has been seriously injured in his character, credit and reputation; and further, that “in the way of his said office he has been brought into public scandal odium and contempt”.

8

It is admitted that The Voice Publishing Co. (1953) Ltd., did in fact print and publish the letter written by E.C.M. Augustin in The Voice dated 19 th October 1966.

9

The full article which appeared and to which objection has been as follows:

“ Growers must help Government.

I believe that it was in April this year that I first sought through our paper to inform banana

growers of the sad and terrible state of the Banana Association's finances. In that letter I disclosed the $1 1/2 mil. which vanished and also that growers had become committed to a debt of another $1 1/2 mil.

From that time I had been persistently and consistently warning delegates that it was absolutely imperative that a more capable board had to replace this Board if the Association was to be saved from bankruptcy.

I have absolutely no doubt that most growers heeded my warning, but the attempt to even begin to clean up the board in July was foiled by some members of the board itself at the expense of the growers themselves.

Nevertheless I wish to point out that bad as the situation was at the time no one had foreseen that within another six months the situation would have worsened to what we can only described as a ‘mysterious financial calamity’, the gravity of which only few growers other than the directors themselves are aware.

l believe that most growers know that today the Association is not able to obtain credit from the fertilizer company nor from the oil company and most deplorable of all, nor from the banks without the endorsement of Government.

But I believe that most growers are yet to know that the management of the Association has disclosed, that they fall short of meeting their weekly expenditure by the sum of $19,000. A shortfall of $988,000 annually.

They are asking us to return the 1/4 cent but this would only account for $7,000 to $8,000 per week or $400,000 annually, then the only sum that can really assist them is not 1/4 cent or even 1/2 cent but 1/4 cent, which would bring, up the cess to 1 1/2 cents and leave the growers with only 3 1/2 cents.

It is now disclosed that the Government intends to take over the control of the Association for a time, perhaps about six months. During that time it hoped to clear up the mystery of the vanished finances, stabilize the industry, and then hand it back to us in a purified state.

Growers must, I emphasize must, give Government every bit of assistance and encouragement in this undertaking.

It would not be fair to elect another board to operate under this veil of mystery and financial mess. It is necessary to acquire the services of a team of experts to delve into this mystery and to effect the reorganization needed to stabilize the industry and only Government can do so speedily and effectively.

It would be necessary for growers to return the one cent for a period to enable the repayment of debts and maybe to start a reserve, but for no other purpose. The Association must be made to operate on cent.

The decision of the Government to intervene must be regarded by banana growers with the same gratitude that a drowning man must regard his rescuers. This decision is six months overdue, and the Government must exercise some urgency in this matter as every day they delay involves the growers into a loss of over $3,000.”

10

In the declaration, the plaintiff complained of the entire article except its penultimate paragraph, and he alleged that the words stated in the first, fourth and eighth paragraphs of the article “meant and were understood to mean that the plaintiff and/or the plaintiff and co-directors and other officers/persons of the St. Lucia Banana Growers Association had in the same way or other” (I think was intended to read ‘in some way or other’) “fraudulently and corruptly misappropriated/used and/or squandered at least one and one half million dollars belonging to the said Association and/or the Growers of the Island”; those in the eighth and ninth paragraphs of the article “meant and were understood to mean that the plaintiff and/or the plaintiff and said his co-directors and officers/persons were themselves dishonest fraudulent and corrupt and that therefore the Board of Directors of The St. Lucia Banana Growers Association was a dishonest fraudulent and corrupt Board whose clandestine malpractices could effectively be probed and whose corruption could be purged by Government alone”; and that the words set out in the final paragraph of the article “meant and were understood to mean that the plaintiff and/or the plaintiff and other co-directors and officers/persons by the said corrupt and/or fraudulent practices did cause and still continue to cause to the said Association a financial loss of not less than $3,000.00 per day (that is to say, a sum not less than $540,000.00 for every six months until such time that the said corruption and/or fraudulent practices are purged)”.

11

I am satisfied, as a result of the opening address of counsel for the plaintiff and from the evidence of the plaintiff – particularly under cross-examination that the plaintiff based his allegation of libel on the natural and ordinary meaning that is or would be normally attributed to the words by a reasonable reader of a newspaper article and not on a critical scansion of it. Consequently, the innuendoes which have been pleaded are, in my view, of the nature of “false” innuendoes (as distinct from “true” or “genuine” innuendoes) because those inferences which the plaintiff alleged can be drawn from the words are set out. In any event, I am satisfied that the wards in the article do not lead to all of the inferences claimed by the plaintiff in his declaration, and such inferences as I consider capable and reasonable are mentioned later in this judgment.

12

The defendants have, all of there, denied that the word of which the plaintiff complained, bear or can be understood to bear or are capable of bearing any defamatory meaning; and alternatively, that the words complained of are fair comment upon a matter of public interest, namely, the operation of the St. Lucia Banana Growers Association Ltd., of which the plaintiff is Chairman. The facts upon which The Voice Publishing Co. Ltd., relied for its defences were set out in two letters to the plaintiff's solicitor and which form part of the record case.

13

The facts are:

  • “1. The banana Industry is of great importance to the economy of St. Lucia.

  • 2. The St. Lucia Banana Growers Association Limited is the organization to which the banana growers of St. Lucia belong to protect their interests.

  • 3. The executive control of the said Association is vested in the Board of Directors.

  • 4. The Plaintiff was the Chairman of the said Board of Directors during the years 1964, 1965 and 1966.

  • 5. At 31 st December 1961 the Reserves of the said Association stood at $1,371,637.32, and the net...

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