PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION. A term applied to two distinct classes of statements. First, it denotes communications between parties to a confidential relation, which the law does not force the recipient to disclose as a wit ness. Examples of this class are statements made by a client to his lawyer, by a patient to his physician, those between husband and wife, those between a party and a witness in prepara tion of a ease for trial, and State secrets. They are frequently called confidential communica tions. The extent to which they are privileged is generally regulated by statute in our States. Second. the term is also applied to statements wide]] are defamatory, but which do not give to the injured party a right of action. State ments of this sort are of two kinds: absolutely privileged and conditionally privileged. Mem bers of Parliament, of Congress, and of our State legislatures are not to be questioned in any other place than their respective Houses for any speech or debate made therein. (See United States Constitution. Art. 1, Sec. 6). Judges also enjoy an absolute privilege from civil action for any thing said o• written by them as judges. This rule is not made for the protection or benefit of a malicious or abusive judge. but for the benefit of the public, whose interest it is that judicial officers should be at liberty to exercise their functions with independence and without fear of consequences. Similar considerations of pub lic policy have led the English courts to accord the same absolute privilege to the pleadings of litigant parties, to the remarks of counsel, and the statements; of witnesses, in the course of judicial proceedings. In this country, however,
the courts have generally held the privilege of such persons to he conditional and not absolute. That is, they are not liable in a civil action unless their defamatory statements are not per tinent or material to the case at issue, and are made in bad faith and for a malicious pur pose.
A conditionally privileged communication is a defamatory statement made by a person in the discharge of some public or private duty, whether legal or moral; or in the conduct of his own affairs in a matter where his interests are concerned. The publication of legislative and judicial proceedings by newspapers belongs to this class. So do statements made by a lawyer to a client about the solvency of a third person with whom the client is about to engage in business transactions. Comuunieations by a parent to a daughter of full age about the reputation of a suitor are also in this category, as are the warnings by a master to his servants about the character of a fellow-servant, or the statements of an employer about those who have been in his service. In all of these, and in similar eases, the plaintiff must show that the defendant uttered the defamation in had faith and for a malicious purpose, or he will fail in his action. See DEFAMATION ; LIBEL; SLANDER. Consult Hageman, PrivIleird Coin niliwicatious (Somerville, N. J., 1339) ; also authorities noted under SLANDER; LIBEL.