(1) Litigation privilege (2) No defamatory meaning

Freeguard v Martlet Homes CA Civ Div 4 December 2008; TLR 15 January;

The claimant and his wife were lessees of a property of which the defendant was the management company. The defendant was responsible for the upkeep of the properties’ communal gardens, and the claimant and a neighbour fell into dispute over use of the shared space. The neighbour complained to the defendant, one of whose officers wrote a letter to the claimant requesting that he remove all trees and shrubs planted in the communal area and re-turf it. A copy of that letter was sent to the neighbour with a covering compliment slip, which asked him to let the defendant know if the claimant had carried out the work, and further stated:‘Let me know if he is abusive etc. to you.’ That slip came to the claimant’s notice in the course of disclosure in proceedings between him and the neighbour. The claimant issued a claim for libel against the defendant on the basis that the words were capable of diminishing him in the eyes of the reasonable and right thinking reader as they carried the inference that he was a naturally abusive individual. The judge struck out the claim as having no reasonable prospect of success.