THE Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on Friday rejected Dr Walter Ramsahoye’s appeal for an increase in the sum awarded him as a result of a claim he had brought against the National Media and Publishing Company Limited and its owner, Glenn Lall.

The High Court of Guyana had awarded $4.5M in damages, and $125,000 in costs in favour of Dr Ramsahoye, who had sued Lall and the National Media and Publishing Company Limited for defamation of character following the publication of an article and two caricatures with captions between January 21 and February 10, 2000.
Both article and captioned caricatures had referred to Dr Ramsahoye in disparaging terms.

The case was presided over by Justice Rishi Persaud, who said at the time that the award was the most ever granted in cases of that nature here. Justice Persaud had also made permanent an injunction granted by Justice Kissoon in March 2000, restraining the further writing, printing, publication or circulation of the same or similarly defamatory materials.

The appellants had, however, obtained a stay of execution pending appeal, on condition that the judgment sum was paid into the court. The sum was duly paid on April 6, 2009, but Dr Ramsahoye was to contend, by virtue of an appeal for a remedy, that the award granted in the High Court was too little.

The Court of Appeal, by a majority, agreed with the doctor, and found that the $4.5M as awarded in the High Court was not only “wholly inadequate”, but that Dr Ramsahoye was not properly compensated. As such, they adjusted the sum to $15M in damages.

But Justice of Appeal Yonnette Cummings-Edwards dissented on the basis that there was no justification for disturbing the award, as Justice Persaud had taken a balanced view of all the circumstances of the case.

In the circumstances, both Lall and his company and Dr Ramsahoye had taken the matter to the CCJ, which in turn ruled that damages must be awarded in accordance with the law, practice and traditions of Guyana, and cannot be assessed on the basis of a comparison of awards made in other territories of the Region, where prevailing socio-economic conditions, including the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are different.

The appellants had appealed to the CCJ on the ground that the substantial increase in the award was unjustified. Alleging error by the Court of Appeal, they noted the absence of a finding of perversity or fundamental violation of legal principles by Justice Persaud; the failure of the award to take into account socio-economic factors, specifically the low Gross Domestic Product of Guyana; the absence of evidence of specific injury to the respondent; Kaieteur News’ (KN) tabloid status; and the trend towards more modest awards of damages, including in personal injury cases.

Dr Ramsahoye complained of the court’s failure to expressly find a case for punitive and/or aggravated damages. He also urged that in assessing damages, the court should have regard to awards made in other territories, and in particular Caribbean jurisdictions

Dr Ramsahoye also cited as an error the failure to award interest; and he sought to adduce fresh evidence in a February 17, 2014 publication in the Kaieteur News which he alleged was defamatory just prior to the hearing. That application was dismissed.

The CCJ, in deciding the case, stressed the well-established principle that to justify reversing a trial judge is not sufficient that the appellate court itself would have awarded a greater or lesser sum. Instead, it must be shown that the trial judge acted on a wrong principle of law; misapprehended the facts; or had, for these or other reasons, made an award so extremely high or low as to make it a wholly erroneous estimate of the damages to which the defamed person is entitled.

The Court found it difficult, on Justice Persaud’s reasoning, which carefully weighed all relevant considerations on the materials before him, to find any error which would warrant a variation of the award.

It also noted the Kaieteur News’ restricted reach and general principles concerning the awarding of damages in justifying assessment of the damages in accordance with the law, practice and traditions of Guyana, as opposed to merely comparing with awards from other jurisdictions with different socio-economic conditions.

The CCJ concluded that there was no justification to vary the award of G$4.5 million made by Justice Persaud, and that the trial judge had properly taken account of the aggravating and mitigating factors. There was no basis for awarding special damages, as they were neither pleaded nor proved.

The Court allowed the appeal with costs to the appellants both before it and in the court below, to be taxed if not earlier agreed. The cross-appeal and consequential orders were dismissed, save that the sum of G$4.5 million (with interest accrued thereon), lodged on April 6, 2009, be paid to the respondent.
The appeal was heard by the Honourable Justices Nelson (presiding), Saunders, Hayton, Anderson and Rajnauth-Lee. Justice Anderson delivered the judgment of the Court.

Sanjeev Datadin and Stephen A Singh represented Glen Lall and National Media, while Anand Ramlogan SC, Roopnarine Satram, Chandrapratesh V Satram, Mahendra Satram, Ganesh Hira, Alvin Paraigsingh and Douglas Bayley represented Dr Ramsahoye.