Court case[1915] 3 KB 32

The defendant sent through the post, in an unsealed envelope, a letter to his wife and children containing statements alleged to be defamatory of them. The butler of the house, out of curiosity and in breach of his duty, took the letter out of the envelope and read it before delivering it. The plaintiffs sued for libel, relying on the butler's reading as the publication to a third person. The plaintiffs had to show that the defendant had published the letter to someone other than themselves, since a communication made only to the person defamed is not publication.

The Court of Appeal held that there was no publication by the defendant. Sending a letter in an unsealed envelope does not of itself amount to publication; the question is whether the communication to the third person was the natural and probable consequence of the defendant's act. It is not part of a butler's duty to open his employer's letters, and the defendant could not be taken to have anticipated that the butler would do so improperly. Nor was the possibility that a post office official might read it enough, as there was no evidence that any did. The action failed for want of publication.