Any words imputing to a practising medical man, misconduct or incapacity in the discharge of his professional duties, are actionable per se.
Whenever a special kind of knowledge is essential to the proper conduct of a particular profession, denying that a man possesses such special knowledge will beactionable if he belongs to that particular profession, but not otherwise.
But if the same words are spoken of a physician, they will not be actionable without proof of special damage, as they do not necessarily affect the plaintiff in relation to his trade or profession [359].
So it is actionable to say of a surgeon and accoucheur, “He is a bad character; none of the medical men here will meet him.
An action for libel must be brought within six years; and an action for slander within two years, unless the words spoken are actionable only by reason of special damage, in which case the action may be brought at any time within six years.
Custom, however sacred, is not equivalent to actionable right, and a person who has nothing but custom to lean upon is supposed to be at the will and mercy of his lord and of base or servile condition.
An obstruction to be actionablemust be substantial.
Thus it is said to be actionable negligence to let a house for a dwelling knowing it to be so infected with small-pox as to be dangerous to health, and concealing the knowledge.
Thus words which merely reflect generally upon the moral character of a tradesman or professional man are not actionable, but they are actionableif directed against his dealings in the course of his trade or profession.
There are however a large class of false defamatory statements, commonly called privileged, which are not actionable on account of the particular circumstances in which they are made.
In the same way no statements or publications are actionable which are made in the ordinary course of parliamentary proceedings.
Since the Musical Copyright Act of 1888 the distinction between these opinions has become immaterial, for in every case in which the performance isactionable at all the Court may assess the damages as it thinks proper.
It may be actionable to say that a man is the author of a work which is not his.
It would be actionable to publish of an author's work that which was obviously untrue; for instance, that it was an immoral or a libellous work, when no suggestion of immorality or libel could be found in it.
When the exclusive right to a title has been established, an innocent invasion is equally as actionable as one tainted with fraud or intent to deceive.
A corporation has no character like a natural person to defend, but a defamatory charge which directly affects its credit and injures its business reputation is an actionable one.
On the other hand, the same amount of noise caused by horses in the basement of an adjoining house is an actionable nuisance.
Noises, odors, smoke, or dust may constitute an actionable nuisance in one locality and not in another.
The only thing," as Lord Halsbury grimly remarked on one occasion, for the subject whose actionable rights are taken away by a Colonial Act of Indemnity "to do is to submit.
Recklessly" at once raises questions of standards of negligence and actionable rights.
But the category of enforceable simple promises defies systematic treatment as obstinately as the actionable pacts in Roman law.
Moreover certain pacts, pacta adiecta, pacta praetoria, became actionable which do not fit into the analytical scheme of the Institutes.
It also legalized peaceful picketing (Section 2), and made certain acts done in furtherance of a trade dispute not actionable on the ground merely that they interfered with business (Section 4).
In future environments, and short of all-out war, it is clear that political and military decision making will have to establish close control of the actionable information distributed to shooters in the field.
Battlefield awareness requires three information technologies: collection, fusion, and dissemination of real-time actionable information to a shooter.
In fact, the key will be the ability to penetrate this fog with increased clarity and to control events now unmanageable through more rapid gathering, analyzing, and distributing actionable information.
