PRACTICAL JOKER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 690, 16 November 1933, Page 6

PRACTICAL JOKER

("Post" Special Correspondent.)

SUED FOR LIBEL BIRTH CONTROL BOOK SENT TO A GIRL. MAN'S NAME USED.

LiOndion^ Uct» b» A "practical joke" by a man whom Mr. Justice Horridge described as having " a strange idea of humour," led to a libel action which was settled in the King's Bench Division yesterday. Mr. Charles Henry Built, Nelsonroad, Worcester, sued Hancock and Co., Ltd, chemists, Fleet-street, E.C., for damages for libel contained in a communication sent by. them to a young woman in Worcester. Mr. Terrence O'Connor, K.C. (with him Mr. Kenelm Preedy), for Mr. Built, announced the settlement. Mr. Built, he said, was a well-known Worcester man, and had been employed for thirty years in a very responsible position with the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company. He was a single man, living with his widowed mother and sister, whom he imaintained, and had under his control a large number of the company's employees at Worcester. Sent to Young Woman. Owing to the false use of his name by someone in the services of the company who possibly had a grudge against him, Messrs. Hancock forwarded to a young lady in the employment of the company a package containing literature on birth control. Enclosed was also this letter, signed by the managress : "Dear Miss Taylor — We have been requested to send you a copy of our birth control booklet by Charles Built, Esq., Padmore-street, Worcester, and I have much pleasure in enclosing same herewith." There was not a breath of suspicion against the young woman, nor indeed Mr. Built, said Mr. O'Connor. He had never had any communication of this character with Messrs. Hancock or any other firm, and the seriousness of the position required no emphasis. It was bound to result in great distress to the young woman and tittle-tattle among servants of the company. Defendants had now offered to give Mr. Built a-complete indemnity as to the costs of the action and a small sum as a token of recognition of the wrong that had been perpetrated. Not wishing to make money out of the action, but only to have his good name preserved in Worcester he had accepted this offer5 together with a full apology.