Successful Defence of a Defamation Case (July 2025)

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Once again we emerged victorious in the successful defence of a defamation suit by an individual against our Client (Butterworth Sessions Court)

Brief Facts of the Claim:-

1. Our Client was the court-appointed auctioneer for Penang High Court and our Client was responsible to assist the High Court in an auction case where the Plaintiff’s property was due to be auctioned off via Court auction.
   
2. Three (3) days before the pasting of the Proclamation of Sale at the premises by our Client, the Plaintiff had sold the property and settled the outstanding loan which was undisclosed to our Client.
   
3. The Plaintiff therefore claimed that our Client had committed defamation by way of libel by the pasting of the Proclamation of Sale despite that the loan has been settled. The Plaintiff claimed that the Proclamation of Sale was defamatory and gave the public an impression that he was poor or financially unsound.
   

The Judge dismissed the Plaintiff’s claim and held in the Judge’s grounds of Judgment, inter alia, that:-

1. There was an effective Court Order that our Client was appointed by the High Court to assist the Court in the auction, which, included the act of pasting of the Proclamation of Sale, and that “…an act in execution of judicial orders or directions, even if mistake or negligence is involved, cannot be the basis of a claim for defamation…”
   
2. The Judge also quoted a High Court case which held “No action for defamation could thus arise from the discharge of a legal duty as above by a court officer even though a third party to whom authority had been delegated may have acted negligently or without due diligence in ascertaining the current status. It was more so against the bank (D) who were not a party involved in the process of publication under the above provisions and had no authority to carry out the publication or to decide when it should be done.
   
3. Since there was only one person (i.e. the neighbour) who had seen the Proclamation of Sale, the damages are too trivial or too minimal to be granted.

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Disclaimer: The above proposition is subject to actual facts and circumstances and shall never be referred as the actual law without seeking legal advice. Consult us for more information!