Prakash appeals slander decision

Ramadhar was ordered to pay specific sums to his brother Kishore Ramadhar, Rudy Hanamji and Satu Ann Ramcharan.

Also ordered to pay the three former COP members are the party’s former chairman Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and founding member, Iqbal Hydal. Neither Seepersad-Bachan or Iqbal Hydal appealed Justice Vasheist Kokaram ruling in December of last year.

In his assessment for damages for slander and libel, Justice Kokaram said the sum must compensate for the damage done to a person’s reputation; vindicate their good name and take into account the distress, hurt and humiliation.

He added however, it was not a road to untaxed riches.

He said in the case of the three, there was no evidence of serious damage to their reputation.

Ramadhar was ordered to pay his brother $90,000; the same amount to Hanamji and $75,000 to Ramcharan. Judgement has been reserved in the appeal which was heard on Monday by Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justices of Appeal Gregory Smith and Prakash Moosai.

The defamation claim filed by the three arose out of statements allegedly made by the COP leader and the party’s chairman at a COP National Council meeting on November 10, 2013, regarding a letter dated October 1, 2013, in which the three were accused of sending to the then Opposition PNM information about the COP’s membership.

Kishore, Hanamji and Ramcharan were suspended from the party’s national executive and national council. The allegation against them was contained in a letter, which purportedly provided information on the status of several COP candidates who contested the 2013 local government elections and which was allegedly sent to PNM general secretary Ashton Ford.

The PNM subsequently wrote to the EBC challenging the membership of the candidates. The three (Kishore, Hanamji and Ramcharan) maintained they neither wrote nor signed any such letter and signatures appearing on the document were “lifted” from other party documents legitimately signed by them.

Ramadhar, represented by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC, Larry Lalla and Michael Rooplal, has argued that Kokaram erred in law when he found that his statements at the November 10, 2013, press conference, held after the COP’s National Council meeting, were defamatory.

He insisted that his words were not defamatory and that there was uncontroverted evidence that the three had publicly attacked, abused and defamed him prior to the national council meeting.

Kokaram had found that Ramadhar’s statements to the media were not a legitimate reply to the attacks to his leadership, and hat the defences of reply to attack, fair comment and qualified privilege were unavailable to him. Representing (K) Ramadhar and Ramcharan were Fred Gilkes while Hanamji was represented by Mervyn Campbell instructed by Yuri Saunders.