Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln on Friday ruled that in 2019 then Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo defamed Charles Ceres and she ordered that he pay $15m in damages plus costs of $2.15m to the geotechnical engineer.
The defamatory statements in relation to land matters were made at a press conference held by Jagdeo on 27th June, 2019.
The judge however accepted the defences offered by Kaieteur News and the Guyana Times, who had also been sued, for their publication of news items based on the press conference and awarded costs to them against Ceres.
The judge said that Jagdeo’s defence relied on justification, fair comment and qualified privilege. However, Jagdeo led no evidence.
“Paragraph 7 (a) of the 1st defendant’s (Jagdeo’s) defence states that ‘The first defendant contends that the words in their natural and ordinary meaning were true in substance and in fact.’
“The defence does not set out what defamatory meanings the 1st defendant seeks to justify and does not give particulars of the matters relied upon in support of the allegation that the words are true as required by the (Civil Procedure Rules). The defence of justification is struck out on this basis”.
The judge went on to show that even if the defence of justification was not struck out Jagdeo would still have lost his case.
The judge noted that the claimant (Ceres) is a geotechnical engineer and groundwater hydrologist in Guyana and internationally with in excess of 40 years of experience.
The evidence of the claimant she said was that Jagdeo published the defamatory statements at a press conference on 27th June 2019 and also published or caused it to be published on the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Facebook account. Thereafter the 1st defendant caused the live video to be shared and published on the PPP/C Facebook account. About 19:00 hrs on the same day the 1st defendant published or caused to be published an extracted video from the PPP/C Facebook account. On the same date at about 19:30 he also published a video of the live stream on his personal Facebook Account titled “Here’s the Press Conference hosted by the leader of the Opposition Bharat Jagdeo earlier today”.
In her judgment, Justice Corbin-Lincoln said that the claimant gave evidence of the publications which was unchallenged and established that Jagdeo published or caused to be published the alleged defamatory statement.
She then addressed whether the words were of or concerning the claimant. The judge found that Ceres was mentioned by name. She also ruled that the words were reasonably capable of being a defamatory.
Justice Corbin-Lincoln then addressed whether the words bore the alleged defamatory meanings and were defamatory to the claimant.
“Having considered the words complained of, I find that the natural and ordinary meaning of the words, read as a whole and in the context in which they were published” were defamatory.
She added: “I find that the words complained of are capable of lowering the claimant in the estimation of right thinking members of the society and are defamatory”.
Justice Corbin-Lincoln said Ceres did not assert that he was never allocated state lands.
“What the 1st defendant (Jagdeo) is required to justify is the ‘real sting’ of the libel. In this case the ‘real sting’ is not that the claimant was allocated public lands but rather that the claimant was allocated state lands by the APNU Government through some corrupt, improper or illegal scheme or process including after the no confidence motion in 2018. The 1st defendant has failed to prove that the allocation of lands to the claimant was through a corrupt, improper or illegal process. I do not find that the 1st defendant has provided evidence to prove the truth of the ‘real sting’ of the defamatory statements”, the judge ruled.
The judge also said that Jagdeo’s defence of qualified privilege failed the test. She then addressed the assessment of damages.
She said that the defamatory statement was “of a serious nature”.
“The evidence of the claimant (Ceres) is that as a result of the publication (by Jagdeo), on 5th July 2019, persons armed themselves with placards and were protesting in front of the Ministry of the Presidency…He further states that he has suffered hatred, insults and ridicule through the comments and shared posted from the 1st defendant’s and the PPP/C’s Facebook accounts by persons both locally and internationally.
“The 1st defendant did not offer an apology and pursued the matter to trial including the defence of justification”.
The judge stated “I accept that the statements have injured the claimant’s reputation and caused him grave distress and embarrassment for which compensation should reflect”.
She addressed various cases including Dr. Balwant Singh Hospital et al v Melissa Atwell in which the 1st and 2nd claimants were awarded 15,000,000 and 20,000,000 respectively for multiple publications of defamatory statements.
“I am mindful that the monetary compensation is fact-sensitive and that each case must be determined on its own peculiar circumstances. In this case, the publication took place on multiple social media platforms. I have taken into account the aggravating and aggravating factors and would award the claimant damages of $15,000,000”, the judge said.
She however said that she was not satisfied from the evidence that the criteria for an award of exemplary damages had been met.
Darren Wade appeared for Ceres. C.V. Satram and Ron Motilall appeared for Jagdeo. Shaunella Glen appeared for Adam Harris and Kaieteur News. Devindra Kissoon, Natasha Vieira and Abhimanyu Dev appeared for Tusika Martin and Guyana Times.
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