Here are four defamation actions that have spectacularly backfired on plaintiffs. While some of the cases may seem archaic, regrettably for many contemporary plaintiffs, the lessons they illustrate are timeless and very applicable today.
The “Highway-man”:
In England during the reign of Queen Anne, a plaintiff brought an action for slander against someone who had said of the plaintiff that “He is a highway-man”. The defendant pleaded truth and succeeded on this defence at trial. Following the jury verdict, the plaintiff was arrested before he could leave the court; committed to Newgate jail; convicted at the next sessions of the criminal court; and hanged. In the words of Chief Justice Holt “people ought to advise well before they bring such actions”. The “highway-man” case is mentioned by the learned Chief Justice in Johnson v Browning, (1705) 6 Modern Reports 217, 87 E.R. 969.
Oscar Wilde:
Another ill-advised libel lawsuit was tried in 1895 when Oscar Wilde imprudently prosecuted Lord Queensbury for criminal libel. Wilde purported to be outraged by Lord Queensbury’s statement that Wilde was “posing as a sodomite”. The only witness who testified was Wilde who admitted on cross-examination that, among other things, he had “become intimate with a young lad” who sold newspapers from a kiosk on a public pier. On April 5, 1985 Oscar Wilde withdrew his prosecution of Lord Queensbury and consented to a directed verdict acquitting Lord Queensbury. Mr. Justice Collins told the jury that justification was proved, and that it was true in substance and in fact that Wilde had “posed” as a sodomite, and that the statement was published in such a manner as to be for the public benefit. After the acquittal of Lord Queensbury, Wilde was arrested later the same day, charged with gross indecency, convicted and eventually sent to prison for two years. See Their Good Names, supra, and The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1962) by Montgomery Hyde.
Jonathan Aitken:
Jonathan Aitken rather melodramatically announced his libel lawsuit against The Guardian newspaper and Granada Television from Conservative Central Office, London, on April 10, 1995, : “If it fails to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight.” Aitken sued over reports investigating his links with the Saudi Royal Family. On June 20, 1997 his libel action was dismissed after the defence proved beyond doubt that he had lied to the High Court during the 11-day trial. The defendants produced documents showing Aitken’s had fabricated an alibi to contradict the media allegations.
On December 7, 1998 the former Conservative Cabinet minister was committed for trial at the Old Bailey to face charges of perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice arising from the collapse of his libel action. Following his guilty plea to the perjury charge in June, 1999, Aitken was sent for a brief period to Elmley Prison on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, following which he was released on house arrest with electronic monitoring, with enormous debts to the libel defendants for this costs, estimated to exceed 1 million pounds sterling.
Lord Jeffrey Archer:A successful libel plaintiff, Lord Jeffrey Archer, the best-selling author, was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and attempting to obstruct justice. He was found to have lied in his successful libel case in 1987 against the Daily Star newspaper where he was awarded $1.1 million in damages. The presiding Judge at the perjury trial, Mr. Justice Humphrey Potts, said:
“Sentencing you, Lord Archer, gives me no pleasure at all”.
But, “these charges represent as serious an offence of perjury as I have had experience of and have been able to find in the books.”
Even Lord Archer’s wife remarked on his talent for “inaccurate precis”.