Extract from official register.—This is a defence of privilege. It is directed by the law that a register shall lee kept of certain classes of judg ments, acts of law, and deeds, and that such register is to be open to public inspection. Thus there are, for example, registers of judgments, bankruptcies, bills of sale, and deeds of arrangement. The legislature has enacted that people may look at the registers, obviously not for the purpose of mere curiosity, but that they may act on the information thereby obtained; so that any tradesman who is considering whether he shall give credit to a person may inspect the registers and see whether there are judgments, or other prejudicial transactions against him therein recorded. That being so, the publisher of such a list is only doing for the public what they may do for themselves, and is only giving that information to the public and to tradesmen which the legislature has thought it right they should have. Therefore the publication of such a list is privileged, and an action will not lie for it, unless the privilege has been abused. If the publication has been from an indirect motive, e.g., for the purpose of extorting money, or if there were any actual malice, e.g., if the publication were to gratify a feeling of revenge, then, no doubt, the privilege would be rebutted ; but so long as the publication is boiui fide and without actual malice, it is not actionable.
Privilege.—If a report were made to a subscriber by a trade protection agency as to the credit of a specified person, such report, though false, would be privileged if made without malice. And it would appear, on the principle of the cases, that a circular list would be equally privileged, though sent unsolicited by the agency to its subscribers. Where a person---and it should be equally true of a society—is so situated that it becomes right in the interests of society that he should tell to a third person certain facts ; then if he, bond fide, and without malice, does tell them, it is a privileged communication. This doctrine would not, however, apply in the case of a public trade journal, for example, in which is included a black list, where certain statements contained in such list are untrue and are not founded upon some official public record.
Of trade-unions.—Lists of employers are occasionally published by trades-unions for the purpose of keeping their members out of such employers' shops. Strictly speaking, such a list is not libelous, but its publication, or the publication of any other document of the same nature, would be restrained by the Court where it contained statements injurious to trade, and where the Court is satisfied on the evidence before it that such statements are false. See LIBEL; COMBINATIONS.
Licensed Victuallers are not now allowed, by reason of the Licensing Act, 1902, to serve persons with intoxicating liquors who, within the previous three years, have been convicted as habitual drunkards and placed by the magistrate on the "black list."
BLACKMAIL—Whosoever sends, delivers, or utters, or directly or in directly causes to be received, knowing the contents thereof, any letter or writing accusing or threatening to accuse any other person of certain crimes, with a view to extort or gain by means of such letter or writing any money or valuable thing from any person, is guilty of a felony, and liable to penal servitude for life. The above-mentioned crimes are : any crime punishable with death or penal servitude for not less than seven years ; any assault with intent to commit a rape ; and any attempt to commit a rape or an infamous crime. To send such a letter demanding money or property with menaces; or to demand money or property in any other way, menaces or by force, are also felonies. A mere request, such as asking charity, without imposing any conditions and without menace, would not constitute the crime. But it is immaterial whether the accusation of the crime is true or not, so long as the demand for the money has actually been made, together with the accusation or threat to accuse ; the guilty intent, however, must be proved, and in order to prove it, other letters received by the prosecutor from the alleged blackmailer upon the same subject may be given in evidence.
BLANK TRANSFER.—It is a common practice, upon the occasion of a temporary loan, for the borrower to deposit with the lender a transfer of any shares he may possess as a security for payment, the transfer being duly signed and executed by him, but a space or blank left for the lender's name to be inserted. The object and intention of this operation is to permit the lender, in default of the agreed payment, to insert his own name, or that of his nominee, in the blank space, and so become absolute transferee and owner of the ;hares ; the latter in the meanwhile remaining untransferred, and the borrower continuing to retain his position of shareholder, m ith its attendant rights and obligations. But such a document is not, in fact, a transfer, but only an agreement to transfer ; though if the lende: were to fill in his name and then re-transfer to a bond fide purchaser for value, who had no notice of the real nature of the transaction, such purchaser would have a good title as against the borrower, in case he had not been dealt N‘ith fairly by the lender. More than that, he has a good title as against the true owner of the shares, if the latter, or any one through whom he claims, has executed the transfer ; even if the borrower had not dealt honestly with the shares. Being only an agreement to transfer, the lender has no legal right to fill his name into the transfer when the stipulated event has happened as agreed between him and the borrower. He must either obtain a newly executed transfer from the borrower, or apply to the Court for power to realise his security. Should he insert his name in the transfer and so become a shareholder in the stead of the borrower, or re-transfer to a purchaser, he does it at his own risk.