IN "justice and in fairness" the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, may not have to pay the Sunday Times's £200,000 legal preparation costs, a judge provisionally ruled at the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday.
However immediately after Mr Justice French delivered his 15 minute judgment, the Sunday Times announced that it will appeal his decision.
Mr Andrew Monsour, the newspaper's barrister, said the ruling had raised "very important points of law" which must now be determined by the Court of Appeal.
Following a London jury's decision to award him "zero costs," which were later increased to one penny, Mr Reynolds will still have to pay the Sunday Times's legal costs from September 20th, estimated to be about £500,000, as well as his own, because he rejected its offer of £5,005, which was paid into court.
In his provisional ruling, Mr Justice French agreed that although the jury had decided Mr Reynolds had been libelled, their "derisory" award for damages meant the verdict "could not be regarded as a vindication of the plaintiff in any real sense of the word."
However he stated that Mr Reynolds's reputation had to a "very limited but not entirely negligible extent" been vindicated by the jury's 10-1 decision that he had not lied to the Cabinet or misled the Dail over the extradition of the paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth.
"It remains true, it remains the fact that Mr Reynolds has obtained something of value to him." He ruled that "in justice and in fairness" there would be no order on costs yet.
A final costs order will not be officially made until Mr Justice French has heard another two days of legal argument on the Sunday Times's remaining defence of qualified privilege. If he rules favour of the newspaper, then Reynolds will still have to pay the entire existing legal bill.
But if the Sunday Times on this point of law, it has announced that it intends to lodge an immediate appeal.
After the ruling, Ms Catherine Rimmell, the solicitor for the Sunday Times, said: "We are trying to establish a new point of law which is unprecedented in English law and will have a very important impact on press freedom.
"If we win on qualified privilege the costs position will automatically change because we will have a complete defence for publishing the article. If we lose we will appeal."
Mr Reynolds flew back to Dublin yesterday morning, but his solicitor, Ms Pamela Cassidy, said although they were "very pleased" with the judge's ruling, they were still examining his summing up during the libel case for grounds of appeal.