Winston Brassington libel judgements against Kaieteur News now over $36M

Aug 29, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News (KN) now owes former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington, in excess of $36 million for libel suits he filed in 2014.

Brassington has sued KN 19 times for defamatory remarks in which the newspaper published against him in the satirical “Dem Boys Seh” column. The former CEO had won five cases before Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln in which he secured judgment awards of $3.5 million for each case bringing it to a total of $17.5 million.
In another case, which was tried before Justice Navindra Singh, Brassington was awarded $10 million against KN by the Court. The sums calculated with an interest of four percent per annum along with legal fees brought the total to $34.4 million. In the latest judgment award, which was handed down on Wednesday, Brassington secured an additional $2 million award against the newspaper.
The sum takes the amount to a total of $36.4 million. The former NICIL Head through his attorney, Timothy Jonas, has so far started cashing in on the judgment by securing a garnishment order from the Court, which allows him to deduct the monies from KN’s bank accounts until the damages awarded by the court are fully covered. He has since garnished over $8 million from the KN accounts.
The newspaper has since applied to the court for an order to stop the garnishment and grant the publication a reasonable payment plan given the economic issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his radio programme on Friday evening, Lall lamented on the impact of the climbing judgment awards during the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for the Court to grant him time to pay.

“I don’t know if you remember but me, Adam Harris, and the Kaieteur News were sued 19 times in one day by Winston Brassington back in 2014. Well, last year September, Justice Fidela Corbin tried five and she awarded him $3.5 (million) each with four percent interest rate. That came up to $17.5 (million) in total. A few months later, Justice Navindra Singh tried one of the cases and gave him $10 million. Those six cases total $27.5 million. Added with some legal fees, those six cases moved to $34.4 million,” the KN publisher disclosed. He added that “since then, I have applied to the high court to have a hearing to work out a payment plan. I was given October 6, 2021. I am not running from paying but… give the company time to pay, it is COVID-19 and I don’t have to explain what is going on with businesses around the world and what is facing every citizen.”
Brassington secured the judgments against the newspaper after the Court upheld his contention that statements published by KN were defamatory and meant or understood to mean that he as NICIL’s head was “dishonest and had been guilty of criminal activity and was habitually guilty of criminal activity and had engaged in criminal fraud and corrupt practices.”
He claimed that the information severely impacted his character and integrity given that it was published in a newspaper which was widely read and circulated throughout Guyana and online where it is read worldwide.
In the most recent judgment order, it was however pointed out by Justice Corbin-Lincoln that the pleadings in Brassington’s claim were essentially a repetition of the previous claims, which were heard before.
Consequentially, in determining the quantum of damages, the judge took all the facts and circumstances of the case into consideration, including that, in several claims heard contemporaneously and arising from publications made by the defendants in the same newspaper within months of each other in 2014 and already determined by her court.
Further, she emphasised that Brassington’s evidence does not disclose that he suffered any additional loss and damage over and above that which was occasioned from the other publications.
Bearing in mind the objective of an award of damages in defamation is to compensate rather than penalise, the judge took into consideration defamatory words, which impute some form of criminality to Brassington and the further effect which it may have caused to his feelings.
Justice Corbin-Lincoln stressed that it was for that element alone that Brassington was compensated.
According to the judge that “the case [in particular] shows how distinct an element in compensation is the matter of injury to feelings.”
In those circumstances, she ordered that damages be paid to Brassington in the sum of $2 million, since in her view, neither KN nor its principals adequately pleaded their defence.
The newspaper had relied on a defence of fair comment. Fair comment is a common-law privilege to criticise and comment on matters of public interest without being liable for defamation provided that the comment is an honest expression of opinion and free of malice.
However, Justice Corbin-Lincoln found KN’s “defence of fair comment to be badly drafted and deficient.” She noted too that the facts upon which the defence relied are not pleaded or particularised.
Added to this, she noted that while the defendant led no evidence, thus reducing the trial time, a trial nonetheless took place. As such, costs were awarded to Brassington. “[And], in all those circumstances, the defendants shall pay the plaintiff costs of $150,000,” the judge added. Brassington’s libel awards are not the only outstanding judgments against KN.
In March, the newspaper company was also ordered by Justice Singh to pay a $20 million judgment award to former President Donald Ramotar for a libel in relation to the sale of the Kaieteur and Canje oil blocks.

 

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