The law in bulk may not be an ass, as has so often been alleged, but it is becoming increasingly clear, from some cases recently decided, that the law of libel is growing some fascinatingly long ears. A sporting writer dealing with the life of Jimmy Wilde, at one time a famous boxer, dealt with an informal bout between him and Boy McCormick in the following passage of a book on the former's career:—
When.... Wilde was invited to put on the gloves with Boy McCormick, the then light-heavyweight champion of Great Britain, he knocked him out as easily as if he had been asked to do nothing more than brush a fly off a pat of butter.
The incident occurred twenty years ago, but the book has only recently been published. Mr. McCormick, now a travelling salesman and boxing instructor, considered that he had been defamed and brought an action in the High Court in London against the author and the publishers of the book for libel. The judge on this occasion had the assistance of a jury, which considered that Mr. McCormick had been so badly defamed that no less a sum than £1,000 with costs would servo to wipe out the slur which had thus been cast on him. Libel holds a person up to hatred, ridicule and contempt, and the jury apparently thought that to state a man had been knocked out by Jimmy Wilde twenty years ago was to invoke the sentiments outlined above.
There was, it is true, some question as to when ther McCormick was knocked out, or whether his father prevented him from falling and assisted him from the ring. But even if that had not happened it is ridiculous to suggest that McCormick, twenty years after the event, suffered to the extent of £1,000 as a result of the paragraph complained of. It is about time the law of libel was drastically reformed. The statement could in no way effect McCormick's boxing career, which has long since ended and the jury taking advantage of the fact that, under antiquated doctrine, damages can be awarded without damage being proved, indulged in the popular past/ze of "soaking" writer and publisher.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.