An imputation in defamation proceedings that is capable of being read in two materially different ways — such as whether the plaintiff was involved in all or only some of the alleged conduct, and whether the entirety of the claimed costs is attributable to the plaintiff — is fatally ambiguous and liable to be struck out as embarrassing. Where a plaintiff contends that alternative meanings are merely shades or nuances of the same imputation, but the alternatives are of potential factual significance, they must be pleaded separately in the alternative.
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