"Muggle" in Children's Literature

[opaldragonfly at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22714

Dear All--While conducting research for the Stouffer lawsuit against 
JKR and the countersuit from JKR and Scholastic/Bloomsbury, lawyers 
came up with an earlier use of "muggle" in children's literature. 
Author Carole Kendall (83) used the term as a last name for a 
candymaker in her novel the The Gammage Cup, which appeared in 1959.  
Kendall "said she came up with the name while living in London.  A 
friend often joked that she was in a 'muddle,' or a predicament.  
Kendall loved the word, and altered it to 'muggles' to create her 
character.  But she said she's not the litigious type."  (15 June 
2000)
    It seems clear that she predates Stouffer (The Legend of Rah and 
the Muggles--1984), so that word (at any rate) won't be a deciding 
factor in this lawsuit!  However, the question probably revolves 
around the use of the characters' names:  Larry Potter, Lilly Potter 
(Stouffer's spelling), and the position of "Keeper of the Gardens."   
Hard to say how a jury or judge would rule on those--coincidences?  
plagiarism?
   My personal opinion is that JKR seems to put great store by Honor 
and Truth, so I am a believer that she wouldn't violate that "trust" 
by stealing someone else's work.  Opal Dragonfly