PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATIONS, statements made by 'a client to his counsellor or attorney in confidence, relating to some cause or action then pending; such communications Cannot be disclosed without the consent of the client; the statements of a patient to his phy sician, of a husband to his wife, of a man or woman to a spiritual adviser, in fact communi cations or statements between parties placed in a confidential relation one to another are _privi leged in the sense that one of the parties to such will not be allowed against the objection of the other to testify with reference thereto in a court of justice. Another class of state ments which enjoy a measure of privilege are defamatory statements which do not give the injured person a right of action. The state ments of legislators, judges, and in some cases of litigants, their counsel, witnesses, etc., come
under this class. In the United States, how ever, it is held generally that such statements render their authors liable to a civil action when made in bad faith and with malicious intent The privilege, therefore, is conditional rather than absolute. Conditional privilege is also extended to defamatory statements made by a person in the discharge of his duty, whether the latter be public or private. As example of the latter is the information given by an em ployer to another employer about a person who has been in his employ. If bad faith and malice are proven in such cases the employer giving such information is liable to action. Consult Hageman, 'Privileged Action' (Somerville, N. J., 1899) and McLaughlin and Bart (Encyclo pedia of American Government' (3 vols., New York 1914).