A DEFAMATION action against Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary for describing a senior trade union official as a "failed Aer Lingus pilot" during RTÉ's Prime Timeprogramme was stopped by a High Court judge yesterday.
The case will now have to be heard afresh by a new judge and jury at a date to be fixed.
Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne discharged the jury hearing the action after lawyers for Irish Air Line Pilots Association president, Evan Cullen, referred in court to the alleged defamatory remark being re-broadcast on the internet and on RTÉ's Todaywith Pat Kenny programme when they had not included such claims in the legal documents in the case.
The judge said such claims should have been included in the original statement of claim.
She felt constrained to discharge the jury and require Mr Cullen’s lawyers to draw up a new statement of claim.
The judge said the claim of re-broadcasting had “landed on front of a jury in a way that seems to be unjustified” and she could see no way of trying to instruct the jury to put this additional claim out of their minds.
The case had opened before a jury yesterday morning and they were discharged in the afternoon.
Earlier, opening the case, Luan Ó Braonáin SC said the untrue and defamatory remark had damaged Mr Cullen's reputation when it was made by Mr O'Leary on an RTÉ Prime Timeprogramme broadcast on September 12th, 2006.
Mr Cullen claims the words meant he was not competent to fly an aircraft and that he had ceased flying. In fact, he was still a highly-regarded pilot working in Aer Lingus.
Mr O’Leary denied the words had the alleged meanings and pleaded they actually meant Mr Cullen had failed in a long-running campaign by the pilots association to get Ryanair’s pilots unionised. He pleaded the words were “mere vulgar abuse” spoken in jest and not maliciously.
The jury was shown the Prime Timeprogramme which began with a report of interviews with a number of people alleging Ryanair's rosters were leading to fatigue among pilots.
A studio debate between Mr Cullen and Mr O’Leary followed in which the Ryanair boss denied claims made in the report. After presenter Miriam O’Callaghan had said: “We’ll leave it there”, Mr O’Leary had added: “More scare stories from a failed Aer Lingus pilot.”
Mr Ó Braonáin said Mr O’Leary had decided to “play the man rather than the ball” by getting this “little dig” in at the end. The effect of his “incendiary” remark led to it being referred to by Pat Kenny next day on his radio show, counsel said. The court heard Mr Kenny had later apologised. The jury was told the remark was carried on the internet where it continues to be repeated through a link to the pilots’ website.
Some people in Mr Cullen’s home village in Roundwood, Co Wicklow, thought he had “lost his wings” and for some reason was not allowed to fly, Mr Ó Braonáin said. The remark damaged his reputation in his community and among his work colleagues.
A series of letters were exchanged between lawyers for Mr Cullen and Mr O’Leary between October 2006 and February 2007. Mr Cullen demanded Mr O’Leary publish an apology drafted by Mr Cullen’s lawyers withdrawing the remark and also make a contribution to charity and pay Mr Cullen’s legal costs.
Mr O’Leary’s lawyers later agreed to issue an apology only on the basis Mr O’Leary would clarify the “failed pilot” remark was not meant to refer to Mr Cullen but was a reference to the pilots’ association’s failed campaign over years to bring Ryanair pilots into the trade union. High Court proceedings were later instituted.
Following Mr Ó Braonáin’s opening, Martin Hayden SC, for Mr O’Leary, applied to dismiss the jury on grounds the references to re-broadcasting had not been pleaded in the original proceedings and his side had had no opportunity to deal with them.
Paul O’Higgins SC, for Mr Cullen, argued the jury should not be dismissed. Counsel said re-broadcasting was a natural and inevitable consequence and it did not matter whether it went out to 400 or 400,000 people.