THE HIGHEST libel award in the history of the State has been made to Donal Kinsella, who sued his former employer Kenmare Resources, claiming he was defamed by a press release it sent out.
Following just over three hours of deliberation yesterday, the jury of seven men and four women awarded him €9 million in compensatory damages and €1 million in aggravated damages. The press release concerned an incident in Mozambique, where they were attending a board meeting, when Mr Kinsella sleep-walked naked to the bedroom of the company secretary, Deirdre Corcoran. The release said he was being asked to resign from the company’s audit committee and referred to an “incident”.
An investigation by an independent solicitor on behalf of the company had found there was no conscious attempt on Mr Kinsella’s part to enter Ms Corcoran’s room and no improper motive in opening her door. Mr Kinsella was prone to sleep-walking.
Bill Shipsey SC, for Kenmare, described the award as “off the Richter scale” and said the company would be appealing it. Mr Justice Éamon de Valera said he would grant a stay provided €500,000 was paid out immediately to Mr Kinsella.
The previous highest libel award was €1.872 million in damages awarded to Monica Leech when a jury decided a series of articles in the Evening Heraldin 2004 falsely suggested Ms Leech had an affair with then minister for the environment Martin Cullen.
The previous highest award was €750,000 to Denis O'Brien against the Irish Daily Mirrorin 2006. This followed an earlier award of £250,000 (€320,000) for alleging Mr O'Brien had paid £30,000 to former minister Ray Burke. The level of the award was appealed to the Supreme Court, which found it "disproportionately high" and referred the case back to the High Court on the issue of damages only.
However, when it went back to the High Court, where the jury was not made aware of the Supreme Court ruling, the award was more than doubled to €750,000.
The majority of the Supreme Court decided it was not appropriate for the judge to give guidelines to the jury on the level of damages awarded in previous libel cases.
In yesterday’s case, the jury found the press release issued by Kenmare Resources wrongly meant Mr Kinsella had made inappropriate advances to Ms Corcoran. He sued the company and its chairman Charles Carvill over the press release, issued by the company on July 10th, 2007.
Outside the court Mr Kinsella (67) said he was “exhilarated and vindicated” by the verdict. He had claimed he became an international “laughing stock” as a result of the release.
Mr Shipsey said the tone of the press release was measured and responsible. If the matter was not explained in clear terms, he added, it was considered that it would cause even greater damage to the company.