Judge awards $900,000 in damages for each of Winston Brassington’s libel suits against Kaieteur News

Jul 09, 2023 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

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Kaieteur News – After being asked by Kaieteur News’ (KN) Publisher, Glenn Lall, to make the final decision in at least five remaining libel suits that former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investment limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington filed against the newspaper; High Court Judge, Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln last week awarded damages in the sum of $900,000 for each claim by Brassington.

Brassington had 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 several cases before the court in which he secured judgment amounting to over $40 million.

As such, in April last, Kaieteur News asked the court to consolidate the remaining matters and make a final determination in the case. This was done through Lall’s attorney, Christopher Thompson.

Thompson submitted that the decision should be made considering the hefty judgment award that Brassington had already been granted in the multiple suits that he won against the newspaper.

Lall’s attorney asked the court to consider that the Former Head of the NICIL had already been adequately compensated for the purported damages to his name and character and as such, the court need not grant him any other monetary award.

The lawyer contended further that if the court should consider an award, it should be given in a nominal sum. The lawyer argued that Brassington filed over a dozen lawsuits outlining the same allegations over and over again. Thompson proposed therefore that to save precious judicial time, the matters should be dealt with collectively.

For his part, Senior Counsel Timothy Jonas representing Brassington was not in agreement with the suggestion. He said that the Court should consider that Lall engaged in a smear campaign against his client, who suffered and must be adequately compensated. He reasoned that though the court awarded judgment before it ought to consider that the repeated attacks meted out against his client.

In her written ruling, Justice Corbin-Lincoln noted that there is no evidence of any significant loss or impairment of Brassington’s reputation as a result of the publication.

“There is no evidence of it affecting him professionally or his ability to attract or engage in business,” the judge said.

The judge noted too that Brassington’s  assertion that the first information which comes to light on a google search of his name concerns these publications from Kaieteur News is unsupported by any other evidence, adding that she found it speculative by the generalized assertion by the plaintiff that google searches are the first port of call for potential clients who interact with him.

Moreover, the judge said, “While the Plaintiff asserts that he was confronted with the publication when he applied for a loan from an unnamed bank in Miami, there is no evidence that he was denied the loan or suffered any other disadvantage as a result of the publication. More importantly, there is no evidence that he suffered any actual loss of income or business as a result of the publication. Indeed, no such loss was pleaded as special damages.”

To this end, Justice Corbin-Lincoln noted that all the words complained of in the various actions are serious as they impute some form of criminality and corruption. However, she stated that there is no evidence of any significant damage to the plaintiff’s reputation and standing, any evidence that he was shunned or suffered a loss of prestige among his business and accounting circles as a result of the publications as suggested in his assertion.

In determining the quantum of damages, the judge said she took into consideration several other similar cases. “Bearing in mind the objective of an award of damages in defamation is to compensate rather than penalize, I find that the previous award of damages for words of similar effect which were published in close proximity should operate as a form of mitigation of damages,” she underscored.

Weighing all the aggravating and mitigating factors and having regard to the purpose of an award of damages, and the awards already, the judge  awarded damages in each action in the sum of $900,000. Cost was also awarded to the plaintiff.

Notably, the judge pointed out that while she considered that rather than continuing to trial the defendant admitted to liability with damages to be assessed, she noted that this action could have been taken earlier.

This publication had reported that 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.

The former CEO had won five cases before Justice 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 another judgment award, Brassington secured an additional $2 million award against the newspaper. The sum took the amount to over $36.4 million.

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• CEO, Dr. Glenn Lall, Fidela Corbin-Lincoln, justice, Kaieteur News (KN) Publisher

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