The Mirror Group of newspapers has said it is likely to appeal a High Court decision to award businessman Denis O'Brien record libel damages of €750,000 for an article published in the Irish Mirror eight years ago.
Legal adviser to the Mirror Group in Ireland, James O'Leary, last night said he was "very much surprised" by the level of damages awarded by the jury in the High Court on Thursday and an appeal to the Supreme Court was very likely. "We are very disappointed . . . by the level of damages which were outside anything we would have considered possible," he said.
The Supreme Court had sent the case back to the High Court after it found an earlier award of £250,000 (€317,000) damages to Mr O'Brien, for the same libel, was "disproportionately high".
However, rather than lower the award the jury of five women and six men more than doubled the amount the paper will have to give to Mr O'Brien.
The businessman took the libel action over an article in the Irish Mirror on June 10th, 1998 which referred to an anonymous letter alleging that former government minister Ray Burke had received a payment of £30,000 from Mr O'Brien. A jury in the High Court in 1999 found Mr O'Brien, then Esat Digifone chairman, had been libelled and awarded him £250,000 damages.
The newspaper appealed to the Supreme Court on the question of the level of damages only. It is now likely that the case will return to the Supreme Court following the decision of the jury in the High Court.
The Mirror Group last April admitted that the article was untrue and defamatory of Mr O'Brien, but it has never issued him an apology. While he would not give the exact reason an apology wasn't made, Mr O'Leary said the decision was "based on legal advice" from the paper's legal team.
The jury, which deliberated for just under an hour and 20 minutes on Thursday, had been given no direction or guidelines on what the amount should be, as legally they cannot be given such a direction by the judge or legal representatives of any party.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell would not comment on the case yesterday, but said the Government's proposals for the reform of libel law would "deal with things like the level of awards made by juries and the directions that judges have to give to juries in this matter".
Media lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Michael Foley said the case demonstrates the need for reform of the libel laws, particularly to give judges the ability to advise juries on awards. There was "no logic" in allowing juries to decide the level of an award he said.
"I don't think we should be giving these decisions to a jury . . . It is not necessarily appropriate juries should then also be asked to decide the level of an award. There's no logic in it."
The award in this case was far higher than awards given to people who had suffered serious disabilities through accident, assault or negligence, and Mr Foley said he did not believe that most people would agree with it. "The award is out of proportion with the wrong done," he said.
"Obviously Denis O'Brien has been wronged and he has a right to his good name as has anybody else, but whether simply paying people large amounts of money for the injury to their reputation is the right thing to do is questionable."
The cost of bringing a libel action meant that only "wealthy people" could bring cases he said.
Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday, media lawyer Andrea Martin said the amount awarded was "extraordinary" and allowing judges guide juries in these cases must be considered.